A Painful Path
by Plagius
Summary: Madara didn't intend to destroy Konoha when he summoned the Kyuubi. His true plan was to obtain a weapon without equal, and thanks to the Yondaime that was what he now had. Born as one of the Akatsuki, and armed with the eyes of the Rikudō Sennin, Naruto must now find a way to achieve the impossible. To see his master's goal realized and bring peace to the world. Rinnegan!Naruto.
1. Chapter 1

His world was without light.

Many others could claim something similar about their own lives. After all, the life of a ninja often lent itself to an existence of darkness and solitude, of death and gloom. Though in Naruto's case, these words were far more literal.

The boy sat in a nameless featureless metal room somewhere within the bowls of the Amekage's tower. Rain rhythmically pelted down on the iron tower above, unceasing as always. Droning and repetitive, its sound was carried through the ribs of the great building down to his metal tomb where it echoed all around him. Even far below the ground he couldn't escape its murmur.

But that was fine with him. The rain was an extension of his master, and extension of the Rain God. It surrounded him always – just as it always had, just as it always would. The rain was a watchful tiger that cared for its young with nothing less than the utmost diligence. It was a part of him, just as it was a part of every citizen of Amegakure.

He'd known this sound since nearly the moment of his birth 5 years ago. He'd been baptized by its caress mere minutes after his life in Konoha had ended. And someday, hopefully far far from now, he too would take up the title of the rain god and watch over the village in his master's stead.

But that was just the start. He would watch over Konoha and Kumo, Iwa and Kiri, and all other lands that lay within his dominion. At long last there would be peace. The fighting would stop and the hatred would fade away like the dark clouds after a storm. He would unite them all – he would save them from themselves. And finally the cycle of pain would be over.

A piece of paper fluttered down onto his head and Naruto clenched his jaw in frustration.

That is, if he ever mastered this basic chakra control exercise.

"Your emotions are your enemy." A frosty voice told him from somewhere in the darkness. "Let your mind be free, but keep your feelings in check or they will certainly betray you."

The boy nodded, but the action was lost in the darkness. "Sorry Konan-chan. I was thinking about the future and I guess I got too excited."

A soft sound that could have been a laugh issued out from the darkness, but the boy discounted it as the rain playing tricks on him. Konan never laughed or even smiled unless she was playing a role whilst wearing a henge. "You're always excited Naruto-kun. You need to spend more time in the here and now instead of chasing far off fantasies. A shinobi that cannot control his emotions won't live long enough to see his dreams come true."

Those words had been taken directly from the Leader's mouth, but that didn't make Konan's argument ring any less true.

Naruto felt a somber something welling up in his chest at those scolding words, but he pushed them down just as he was taught to do. A shinobi must always be in control of himself – mind, body, and soul. Anything less was unacceptable.

"I won't let it happen again. I will do my best for Leader-sama."

He quickly got back to floating the piece of paper above his head.

It always surprised her when he spoke like this. His childish voice carried an unusual amount of resolve for one so young. She couldn't help but be reminded of certain friend who was exactly the same way when the three of them were younger.

He had also wanted to change the world and put a stop the endless fighting. His heart was so strong and pure, it seemed like nothing would ever dampen his spirits, not even the rain that pounded down on them. She loved him for that.

So the world took him from her.

The Salamander crushed her heart that day and drove Nagato to madness. In the end, it hadn't mattered that Yahiko was right or just or that he had wanted to save everyone – the Salamander cared little for such things. He was judged weak and so the Salamander felt nothing when his light was snuffed out.

A slight rustle of paper and a soft growl alerted her to the fact that Naruto had lost control again. The boy didn't yell or complain about the exercise being too hard like most children his age were prone to do when met with failure; instead he quietly picked up the sheet of paper and diligently went back to the exercise.

He was the same way with kunai and shuriken and ninjutsu. It never got him down when he missed a target or accidently injured himself with a rouge fireball. Naruto would just pick himself up and try again, knowing that he would be even better the second or third time around. Even when he spared with the Leader, he was never daunted by the crushing blows or the broken bones that he'd received – he would shake it off and fight until his master was pleased with his progress. No matter the odds, he would always stand up one more time.

To Konan, Naruto was a living breathing impossibility.

The small smile that tugged at the edge of Konan's lip went unseen by her pupil in the dark. Honestly, with the amount of chakra that the boy had, it was nothing short of a miracle that he could keep the paper aloft as long as he had.

For Naruto, floating a piece of paper was equivalent to trying to fill a thimble with a geyser. Even if every member of their organization pooled their chakra together, it wouldn't even amount to a quarter of what the boy held in reserve. As such, the Leader drilled chakra control exercises into the boy since he was old enough to talk for hours on end. After 2 years of refining his control, Naruto was ranked just above an average genin. Needless to say more training would be required. Only the best would be able to accomplish the Leader's goal.

It seemed like young blond was destined for greatness. Though considering who his father was, who was training him, and what was sealed inside him, it seemed impossible for Naruto to turn out any other way.

Already, the boy was well on his way to mastering the Dance of the Shikigami. He could pull off the wide area techniques like the Paper Storm and White Forest Emergence seemingly without effort, and the Paper Clone was nearly complete as well. In terms of hand to hand fighting, a chunin would be impressed with the boy's skills; maybe even a jonin would be surprised on a good day. It was a shame that it would most likely all go down the tubes as the boy grew older and his body got taller and stronger. But that didn't get him down, he just plowed on ahead saying that he was quick to adapt and that he'd figure something out on the way.

And all of this was at the age of 5; he hadn't even begun to unlock his true potential. The power of the jinchuuriki was nothing short of ridiculous.

But by the end of this day, the boy would be drastically more powerful. A slight frown found its way onto her face. Sometime soon, likely within the hour, the Leader would gift the boy with the same power that he commanded.

The Rinnegan, the eyes of the Rikudō Sennin.

It would've been a lie if Konan said that she was committed to this plan. She understood the need for Naruto to grow as quickly as possible, but she had seen what the power of the Rinnegan had done to her friend. Those eyes had changed Nagato somehow. She'd watched the pain on his face as he struck back at the Salamander and avenged the death of their friend. Since that day, his pain had never faded. It festered and grew like an untreated wound until Nagato lost himself to his hatred. Looking back on it, she wished that she had done something, anything, to help him let go. Instead she had stood by him stoic and silent as always – a paper angel in service to her god.

Now she would watch as another was forced to walk down that painful path. Konan wasn't an idealist in any sense of the word, she was too old and jaded to fall back into that old vice, but there was something buried beneath "Konan the kunoichi" that squirmed at the thought of doing this to someone so young.

He wasn't ready; neither mentally nor physically.

True, Naruto had been conditioned to be a perfect shinobi from the moment he was able to walk. He was frighteningly mature for his age, even if he did get a little over excited every once in a while. But that was only when he was with her. Whenever he was in front of the Leader he transformed himself into the stoic weapon of peace that he was expected to be. That childish side was beaten out of him long ago until only a soldier remained. Yes he had known pain; he'd been flogged and beaten on more than one occasion for acting insubordinate in the Leader's presence.

But the pain that he would experience today would go far beyond anything that he'd ever felt before.

Those bright soulful blue eyes would be replaced by the cold calculating lavender-steel of the Rinnegan and his body would find itself home to an array of hard ebon rods. And all of this would happen when he was awake. Pain was the key to unlocking the power of the Rinnegan.

He would feel every inch of the steel scalpel blade as his eyes were cut from his head and hear every snap as his bones gave way beneath the chakra transmitters.

When the Leader had told the boy of his plan, to perform the surgery with Naruto conscious, Konan had wanted to object, but the boy had answered to quickly. With a swift "Hai, Leader-sama" the boy had resigned himself to endure an agony that few could ever comprehend. He never faltered in his choice either, never regretted that he had chosen the more difficult path. "They're all counting on me." He'd replied when she'd asked him if he was sure. "Not just the villagers or the ninja, but everyone. Akatsuki, the Leader, and of course you too Konan-chan. I have to help everyone. To protect what is precious to me, I will suffer any amount of pain."

He said it so earnestly. For a few seconds, Konan felt that one human emotion that she thought had died with Yahiko. She'd schooled her features and turned from the boy – after that the pair went along with their business as usual. The subject was dropped. But even now, she felt so proud of him.

Konan idly wondered if this was how a parent felt.

She quashed the feeling and scolded herself for thinking such a thought. It was unbefitting for a kunoichi and unbefitting of a teacher. Naruto, a 5 year old boy, was going above and beyond the call of duty to service the Leader; there was no excuse for her to not do the same.

There was a loud bang and suddenly the room filled with light. The Leader stood with his hand on the heavy iron door flanked by his entourage of five figures. His face was calm and collected like always.

"It's time Naruto."

The boy barked out a quick "Hai, Leader-sama." and rose to his feet. Konan mimicked him and the group left the room.

Only the sound of footfalls on metal and the ever present drone of the rain were heard as the six Paths escorted the young jinchuuriki and his sensei through the winding halls of the tower to the operating room. Again the Leader opened the door and nodded for Naruto to cross the threshold.

He was greeted by the sight of a large stainless steel metal table covered with leather restraints. A large surgical lamp cast its glow downward on the table which caused it to appear to be the only thing in the room. Ominous and inescapable. Upon looking further Naruto was able to see the display of surgical equipment and medical supplies. He couldn't help but notice the large number of blood bags that were kept on hand for the occasion and he felt his courage begin to wilt. As if to drive these feelings home with a sledge hammer, the boy locked eyes with the Rinnegan eyes suspended in a jar of opaque yellow fluid. He hoped that the Leader wouldn't notice the shiver that ran down his spine.

Apparently he'd failed.

"There is no time for second thoughts now, Naruto. You chose this path, and now you must walk it. A true shinobi stands by his convictions."

"I know Leader-sama. I will always stand by what I say – that is my ninja way." His voice faltered just a bit. "B-but… I can't help but be afraid. Is it okay if Konan-san stays with me?"

The man turned his eyes toward the blue haired woman who stood quietly behind them. He then let them resettle on his apprentice. "The Akatsuki doesn't tolerate weakness from any of its members." Naruto's eyes fell before he quickly retrained his features. He didn't want to disappoint his master. That thought caused the Leader's mouth turned up in a barely perceptible smirk. "However, in light of the circumstances, I will allow an exception to this rule just this once. Konan, please enter."

"Hai, Leader-sama."

The door swung shut behind them.

The six Paths wasted no time in fanning out to their positions around the operating table. Naruto turned to give Konan a quick smile before dutifully stripping down out of his black ninja garb and lying down on the table. Leather straps closed down on his arms, wrists, legs, and neck, effectively pinning him to the cold metal surface. Three more straps were tightened around his torso and something that appeared to be little more than a vise was placed around his head to lock it in place.

Konan wished a lot of things at this point. She wished that Naruto had been strong enough to bare this burden without her presence; she didn't think that she would have the heart to hear the sounds of his screams. Her heart was hard, but this was different from interrogating an enemy. He was her student, it felt like she was betraying him if she let this happen. She wished that she could free him from his word or that she could convince the Leader to let the boy be unconscious for this.

But more than all of these things, she wished that she had returned the boy's smile.

Naruto let out a calming breath. "I'm ready."

The Asura Path stepped forward and tested a metal needle that quickly extended and retracted from his finger similar to a sewing machine.

"Remember to breathe."

He placed the device against Naruto's left ear and began to work. A sharp pain shot through the boy's ear as the Asura Path quickly and mechanically pierced it up and down in rapid succession. No sooner had he finished the left ear did he move on to the right, littering it with holes just as quickly. As if on command, two other Paths began to loop small black rings through the holes.

"Are you still okay?"

Tears began to prickle at Naruto's eyes at the throbbing sensation that now coursed through his ears but, other than that and a slight grimace he remained undaunted. In about 30 seconds Naruto had received no less than twelve piercings. Most grown men wouldn't be fine after something like that.

"I'm fine."

He then moved on to pierce the bridge of the boy's nose. This time the boy had a much more verbal reaction, especially after the last pricing in the series of three went through the thin bone that made up the bridge of his nose. Just as quickly as before, the other Paths moved to place the chakra receivers though the wounds.

"This was the least of it. Are you still okay?"

Naruto panted, gritting his teeth at the sensation of the foreign metal and chakra being placed within his body. Unlike the ears, the human nose is quite sensitive and quite vascular; at least it is when the piercing goes all the way through it. Blood was steadily trickling down the boy's face from the wounds, which prompted one of the Paths to insert an IV into his arm.

He wasn't okay. His face hurt badly and he felt sick as his master's chakra began to invade his body. But he couldn't give up. He'd had worse than this before; he just had to tough it out a bit longer.

"I-I'm fine."

The piercings on the underside of his lips came next. Those were substantially less painful then the three that came before it. But now here came the worst of it. It hadn't been a joke when the Asura Path had said that this was the easy part.

The Asura Path placed a thick coil of rope in the boy's mouth. "This will hurt. Bite down on the rope and focus on breathing. Just remember, it's not as bad as it appears. The Kyuubi will fix the damage to your body quickly."

Naruto knew what was coming and nodded as his jaw clamped down on the rope.

A bloodcurdling scream was ripped from the boy's throat as all six Paths drove the inch long chakra blades through his arms and shoulders. The blades were driven right to the bone and then through it, shattering the brittle structure. Naruto's eyes rolled back in his head as he continued to scream, thrashing uselessly side to side against the restraints. A slight reprieve from the screaming was found in the time that it took for Naruto to empty the bile from his stomach and for the Asura Path to suction the fluid away from the boy's airways.

He lay on that table with his eyes screwed shut, shuddering as the agonizing pain of six broken bones assaulted his senses. Blood was flowing freely from the wounds, and he could feel the familiar burn of the Kyuubi's chakra as they began to sew themselves shut. Finally he was able to open his eyes again – they were wild and bloodshot after the ordeal and tears were flowing from them freely now.

"Will you remain conscious?"

The question had changed because it was apparent to all who were present that the young jinchuuriki was most certainly not fine. Were he not in absolute torture, Naruto might have found the gesture almost thoughtful. As it was, all he could do was make a whimpering sound.

"Strength Naruto." The Leader spoke. "All paths to power require sacrifice. Are you going to give up?"

Naruto didn't need to open his eyes for his master to see his conviction within them; it was made plain by his words.

"No. I-I never give up."

The Leader nodded and placed a new length of rope in the boy's mouth.

The soft sound of footsteps on tile reached Naruto's throbbing ears and he felt an unearthly smooth, almost frictionless, hand close around his own. He opened his eyes to see Konan off to his side. Even after all that, he found the strength to smile up at her. This time she returned the smile, something Naruto hadn't ever seen before, headless of the Leader's disapproving gaze.

"It'll be okay Naruto-kun."

She was forced to move out of the way as the Paths shifted their focus to his legs. Six more blades came down, spearing their way through skin, flesh, nerve, and bone until they were all they way through. Naruto howled with renewed fervor and his grip crushed down around Konan's hand as if it was the only thing keeping him tied to this world. In reality, it may very well have been.

His stomach tried to empty itself again but nothing came. He lay on the table dry heaving and crying as the pain radiated through his entire being. God he wished that it could stop. He wished harder than anything that he could just pass out and wake up without this excruciating feeling that tore through his body.

He felt Konan rubbing her thumb across the back of his hand, but he couldn't find the strength to reciprocate the gesture. He just wanted the pain to end.

"Will you remain conscious?"

Naruto could only grunt in agreement, his shredded vocal cords protesting at the possibility of continued use.

"Stay strong Naruto-kun."

They were moving again, aligning the blades with his stomach and chest. This would be the worst of them all. The blades came down.

He was right.

The receivers bit deep into his body. He could feel them, cold and foreign, in his lungs and abdomen. Naruto would've screamed if he had the strength left to do so, but his energy was entirely spent. All he could do was focus on breathing. It wasn't nearly as easy as it used to be with the pair of rods now inhabiting his lungs. Every breath burned like nothing else and the merest movement of his body would send pain rocketing through his whole body.

"-ruto…" The voice sounded far off, like he was under water.

"Naruto-kun!" It was Konan. That's strange, Konan never raised her voice.

His eyes cracked open. Naruto could see the look in her eyes; she was worried about him. It was rare to see such a thing from God's Angel, but it made him feel warm and strong. Even though he didn't entirely understand why he felt this way, he was thankful that she was here to rekindle the flame of his courage. Her presence gave him focus and purpose. He had to remember he was doing this for her. And not just for her but for everyone in the entire world. This was his burden to bear and no one else's. Under the insurmountable weight of his destiny, all others would fail if they tried to take up its mantle. He, and he alone, was the only one strong enough to suffer for the world.

Pain. That was the price to pay for peace.

The sound of a jar being unscrewed reached his ears. Naruto let his tired gaze rest on Konan's face one last time, and with a sort of surreal realization he understood that this would be the last time that he ever looked upon her though his own eyes. He let his eyes slip closed as a new and different pain began to blossom within his chest. It was like his stomach was replaced with a cold heavy weight and try though he might, Naruto was unable to shake the feeling away.

One last time. He would allow himself to feel emotion one last time before he became the perfect weapon for his master. Then, he would do what he had to do and deaden his heart to the world. It was time start fulfilling his purpose in life

Naruto let the tears roll down his cheeks one last time as the Leader slowly lowered a scalpel to his eye.

* * *

**What did you guys think? Was there anything that seemed strange or out of place to you? I'm especially worried about hammering out everyone's characterization (Konan in particular is hard for me to pin down) before I really start to get into the swing of writing something new. I'd really appreciate some feedback (good or bad) on my work because the only way that I'll improve as a writer is by finding what my weaknesses are.**

**One thing that I should clear up since I'm getting quite a few questions about it: Naruto isn't one of pein's paths, the chakra receivers are there to control him if he gets out of hand (I'm pretty sure it works on living people too since Nagato tried to use it on Naruto in the manga when they first met) and to help train him by making his chakra similar to pein's. The "spare" rinnegan comes from working with Tobito (who has been shown to be able to clone sharingan and rinnegan when he put them into his paths) and Orochimaru (who has been screwing around with kinjutsu since he was knee high to a grasshopper and also messes around with cloning).**

**Also, I'm undecided as to what the pairing of this story is going to be at this point. I'm leading towards Naru X Konan, but I'm always open for suggestions. Just no Yaoi please. I've got nothing against hot guy on guy action, but since I'm a man I'd rather not have to experience it myself if you know what I mean.  
**


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks to the power of the Kyuubi and his own unnatural vitality, Naruto had regained consciousness within four days of his operation.

He immediately wished that he'd remained asleep.

His body was just a few steps away from being entirely mummified beneath gauze, bandages, and an assortment of wires and IV's. The pain of whole ordeal had lessened significantly within the short time that had passed, but he was still terribly sore and stiff after having received the Leader's "gift". Moreover, he could actively feel as his chakra was forcibly converted by the chakra receivers to resemble that of his master's. It left him feeling quite nauseated; like he was a stranger in his own body.

And he was weak, Kami he was weak now.

Before the operation, he had been able to perform nearly 20 high level jutsu. As it was, he would've been surprised if he was still able to mould his chakra. All those painstaking months of building up his control had been utterly shot due to the influx of foreign energy. He would have to learn his old abilities all over again. It was such a shame; he'd been so close to mastering the Dance of the Shikigami. Hopefully Konan would be willing to help him rediscover its secrets. And hopefully it would be easier the second time around.

If all of that wasn't bad enough, he was quickly finding out that he was also complete rubbish with his new kekkei genkai. This wasn't unexpected, his entire chakra system was in the process of being reconstructed, but it still hurt to know how far he'd fallen and how little he'd gotten out of the deal. As it was though, the shared vision of the Leader and his five Paths did little to help the ever growing queasiness that Naruto had to endure.

To his juvenile Rinnegan, the images of everything that the other Paths saw were an unrecognizable cacophony color and motion. His untrained eyes weren't yet able to distinguish one image from another causing all of the pictures meld together and pile up on top of each other. It also didn't help that the Rinnegan was able to see the ebb and flow chakra; something which the young Naruto was completely unacquainted with. All this provided him with was an unintelligible mess that was punctuated with blindingly bright flashes of blue light at random intervals. Even if he had been completely healed, the boy still wouldn't have been able to walk with his Rinnegan in such an unusable state.

And the worst part was that Naruto didn't know how to turn it off.

His eyes remained unopened behind a thick length of gauze as they continued to heal. They were shut but that didn't impede the flow of the images in the least. Naruto could do little more than wait for the Leader or Konan check in on him, and hope that he wouldn't puke in the meantime.

Thankfully, it wasn't long before he heard the door to his recovery room slide open. Since he was unable to find any jumbled flashes of his own bandaged body in the sea of pictures that bombarded him, he came to the conclusion that it was Konan who was now in his room.

"Konan?" He called out for her in a rough whisper.

He heard her feather soft footsteps on the stone floor and felt her presence somewhere at his side.

"I'm here Naruto-kun. How are you feeling right now?" She felt a little bad for asking such an obvious question. Her student probably felt exactly the way a 5 year old boy would feel after having his eyes removed and being systematically impaled. It was mostly just a test to see how much strength was in the boy's words. To see how his mental health was holding up after something like this.

"I'm weak. I can see what Leader-sama sees and it's making me sick." His words were interrupted by a series of soft coughs. "Can I have some water Konan-chan?"

He heard the sound of water being poured into a glass and felt it press against his hand.

Konan felt a slight disruption in the air just before it happened; years of training took over and she instinctively performed a substitution.

A wave of force exploded from Naruto's body. The steel frame of the bed beneath him crumpled like it was made of tin foil, and the glass of water at his side was reduced to little more than dust. Wires and tubes buckled against the pressure and were destroyed; the larger machines that they were once attached to got flung against the far wall like ragdolls in spite of their weight.

Naruto lay cradled with the wreckage of his bed gritting his teeth against the jarring impact of his body against the floor and the seething pain in his eyes. He knew what had happened. The Leader used this power often enough in their spars for him to be quite intimate with it.

Shinra Tensei: the power of the Deva Path.

Somehow, his body had reacted automatically to the "threatening presence" and had tried to get rid of it. At least, that was Naruto's best guess. He didn't even really know how he had done it. One second he was lying there and the next second his ears were filled with the sound of things being broken and he was on his back in a crater. A horrible thought suddenly occurred to him; what if he'd hurt Konan?

Fueled by panic, Naruto slowly began to get to his feet despite the way that his muscles protested.

"Konan-chan?" he called out as loud as his parched throat would allow him. As he made his way out of the rubble, he realized with a start that the images had finally gone quiet. He was just about to crack a smile when they returned en masse, seemingly drawn to his hope the way that a shark was drawn to blood. Vertigo set upon him and he felt himself pitch forward toward the ground. The boy gritted his teeth in preparation for the inevitable pain that would come when he struck ground, but it never came. Instead a pair of strong arms caught him. Again his eyes burned as they reacted to this new threat, but the wall of force that leapt from them melted away like wax before an open flame.

He became aware that there were only two images now. Both of them were of him. One showed him in the arms of a man, as if he were holding his own bandaged form; the other showed him from a slightly different view in the arms of the Preta Path who was currently absorbing the rouge energy created by his Rinnegan.

"Naruto, I need you to focus on my voice. I need you to calm yourself."

The boy's body shuddered a bit as another wave of force was created and subsequently drained, an effect which left his eyes feeling as if there was crushed glass being rubbed in them.

"Naruto. Acknowledge."

It was an order from the Leader, he had to respond.

"I-I hear you L-Leader-sama. I can't control the eye." His tone was shaky but neutral. It was clear that the boy was trying his best not to panic. A shinobi does not panic. He approaches every situation with calm and quickly forms a plan to confront adversity. Weakness in his master's presence was unacceptable.

He let his body calm itself. His heart rate began to slow and the interval and intensity of the blasts began to lessen, never quite disappearing but becoming far more manageable for the boy to deal with. The pain also lessened in turn from a mind numbing agony to a persistent throb that pulsed in time with the activation of his technique.

The Preta Path deemed it safe to let the boy go and he crumpled unceremoniously at his feet. No longer in contact with the threat, his Rinnegan went silent. Another image disappeared, signifying that the Path had closed its eyes, and Naruto was left staring at his own sorry form through the eyes of his master.

"I apologize Leader-sama. My behavior was unbefitting a shinobi of Akatsuki; I will accept any punishment that you bestow upon me."

There were a few moments of silence before his master spoke. "The fault of this incident lays with me Naruto. I underestimated the speed at which your Rinnegan would develop and didn't take time to set up proper protocols for this scenario. It was quite some time before I was able to walk the Deva Path, and with only my own experiences to provide scope I was under the impression that you would act similarly."

Naruto was blown away. Though the man had not directly said it, the Leader had admitted weakness. And even more surprising than that, the man had almost apologized. Such a thing was entirely unheard of. His master was God; God made no mistakes and explained himself to no one. Naruto internalized all of these feelings immediately; it was not his place to think such things.

"Konan tells me that you are weak but otherwise fine. This is because your chakra nature is being rewritten by the Rinnegan to encompass all 5 elements. It will be at least a week before your chakra is entirely converted and until such a time you will be unable to utilize your chakra and you will continue to feel tired."

Naruto nodded. "Did I hurt Konan-san?"

"No. Konan is fine; she was able to get out of the way without injury."

The boy let out a breath that he didn't realize that he'd been holding in. He didn't know what he would do if he'd actually managed to hurt Konan-chan. Naruto realized the nature of his thoughts and pushed them aside, there were more important matters to attend to.

"What am I to do while I wait Leader-sama? A weapon is of no use when left to inaction."

A small smirk spread across the Leader's face. The tenacity of this boy and his eagerness to be of use was surprising. He'd taken in a few apprentices before Naruto, but none had been suitable to undertake a mission of such dire importance. And certainly none of them had been worthy or strong enough to receive the eyes of the Rikudō Sennin. But this boy was different. He was truly and utterly self-sacrificing even for a world that he'd hardly ever seen.

"You must heal first. A weapon that is in disrepair will only harm its wielder." The man paused as a thought occurred to him. "Your eyes are too weak for you to walk the paths yet, but you should be able to see though my eyes, yes?"

The boy nodded.

"Are you able to see though the eyes of the Paths yet?"

Again, Naruto nodded but this one held more uncertainty. "I can see through their eyes but I can't tell what I'm seeing. Everything seems to be happening at once."

The Leader had never encountered this type of problem on his own, though he was able to anticipate its cause. He'd been expecting this to happen and had quickly severed his link with the other Paths when he'd learned that Naruto was awake.

The Leader had first discovered the visual link of the Rinnegan when he broke his body apart and created the other Paths. At fist, the experience had been disorienting and he'd struggled to deal with his newfound power. But the process of creating Paths was time consuming. This meant that it would take several days if not weeks before another Path was created. Because of this, his brain had been able to adjust itself to interpret the images before things were again unsettled by the addition of a new Path.

"Your mind can't figure out what to do with the images, so it shows them all at once. I will open the eyes of eyes of the Preta Path now. I want you to see though both of our eyes at the same time and feel the connection of our chakra and the chakra of the world around you."

Twin images returned to Naruto's mind. It was unsettling but nowhere near as overwhelming as trying to deal with six images simultaneously. Something was bothering him though.

"Master, I don't know what you mean when you say to feel the chakra. I can see it through your eyes, but I don't feel anything except fatigue."

The man nodded as he turned to leave and the Preta Path placed Naruto on an unoccupied and mostly undamaged bed. "The machinations are subtle." It was the Preta Path that spoke. "Feeling chakra is the single most difficult part of unlocking the power of the Rinnegan because it is entirely different from anything that you've ever experienced. It is a sixth sense which is fundamentally different from everything you know. It's not something that you can learn. You can try and try without ever getting anywhere and then one day you will just understand."

Naruto didn't entirely understand but watched himself nod through the Path's eyes. It began to walk away.

"Master?"

"What?"

The boy felt embarrassed. "Can I have some water? I wrecked the room before I got a drink the first time."

The Path fought the urge to sigh.

XxXxX

A month had passed since Naruto awoke. Since then, he'd grown in leaps and bounds with regard to controlling the power his Rinnegan. True to his master's words, the boy's chakra network had taken about a week to stabilize itself after being altered to contain all five chakra affinities. This didn't mean very much in the way of learning new jutsu, his control was still far too poor to begin relearning his lost techniques, but at least he wasn't tired all the time anymore. This also had the added effect of snapping his Rinnegan out of 'bat-shit crazy' mode and he no longer had to worry about destroying a room when he sneezed or jerked awake in his sleep.

With his Rinnegan more or less under control, Naruto began the slow process of learning how to harness its power. His Shinra Tensei was powerful but still had a slower recharge time than his master's. It was likely strong enough to blow away a good sized building, though he hadn't tried yet and probably wouldn't for quite some time. Ninja were about stealth. There was nothing stealthy in smashing a house like soda can. Moreover, Naruto was all too aware of the circumstances surrounding his "adoption." In his case, stealth was paramount.

Nearly all his effort had gone towards refining the Shinra Tensei and its sister technique, the Bansho Ten'in, into a smaller form that wouldn't risk his exposure or cause unnecessary damage to the boy's surroundings. Sometimes deflecting a kunai or knocking an opponent off balance was all that was all that was required to ensure victory. Fights didn't have to end with him standing in a 500 foot crater with his enemy a bloody stain. A ninja was nothing if not subtle.

The other abilities that he'd learned were more suitable for utility as opposed to raw destructive power.

He'd learned how to summon chakra blades and had quickly taken to the art of fighting with one in each hand. Many weapon masters stove for their whole lives to become one with their weapon; to feel their weapon as an extension of their body. For Naruto, this was something that had been his since the day that he first summoned a chakra blade. The black iron rod was already a part of him to begin with; he could feel even the slightest change in the position or pitch of the blade as well as its exact length and momentum. It made him a born sword master, though he wasn't under the impression that this meant he could give up and focus on other things. His inexperience was beaten into him on a daily basis quite literally when he spared with the Leader.

The Kyuubi was always able to heal the damage away, but recently Naruto had discovered what a boon the Asura Path could be. Thus far, his knowledge of the Asura Path was extremely limited but he knew enough to harden his skin into metal to absorb a blow. Considering how wearily often he took hits, it was starting to become second nature to him. It didn't really help all that much when put up against the Leader's strength, but at least he was trying. It was crucial to use the Path as much as possible in order to prepare himself for its use in the future. The ability to wield six weapons in each hand, create mechanized projectile weapons, and cast three jutsu at the same time was waaay to good to pass up. But as it was, Naruto could only harden his skin and create a single additional arm which mostly got in his way.

It was a similar problem to the shared fields of vision (he was up to three Paths at once). His brain didn't really know what to do with the extra appendage, and the chakra receivers in his arm could only help so much to orient him. Practice and patience was the key. A ninja was nothing if not patient.

But if Naruto was being entirely honest, he was beginning to go a little stir crazy after being trapped in the Amekage's tower for more than a month.

The boy had been forced to remain within the iron embrace of the Amekage's tower for almost his entire life. He had no friends or loved ones (he didn't know if the Leader or Konan counted), and had never seen the sun. When he was allowed to leave the tower, it was always under the guise of a henge and he was always accompanied by his master and Konan. They would play the part of a family of orphans, himself in the role of the idiot younger brother, and Konan and the Leader as his strict but kind older siblings.

They didn't participate in this charade for Naruto's enjoyment though; it was yet another form of training. Konoha, and nearly every other hidden village, was continuously on the lookout for the "missing nine-tails jinchuuriki". If he was discovered all of Akatsuki's work would be for nothing. But they weren't just able to keep him in the tower until he was strong enough to go out on his own. He had to learn how to "make friends" and discover how normal people interacted with one another so that he could properly emulate them in the future. In a way, it was one of the most important lessons for him to learn and would have to serve as a replacement for his D-rank missions.

Realizing this, he spent the next few weeks getting his chakra control back up to snuff so that he could maintain a henge for few hours and go play in the park with his Nee-chan and Nii-san.

XxXxX

The trio sat beneath an umbrella laughing and talking about nothing in particular at the edge of a playground. No one really paid any attention to Menma and his siblings. They were ordinary and unassuming; just another family of orphans. But their seemingly innocent actions were decidedly not.

Underneath all of the jokes and talk were coded orders and questions of a rather sinister nature. For example whenever Tsubaki-neechan flicked at her hair it was a kill order for whoever Akone-niisan was looking at. His job was to respond in code for the best and most desecrate method of the target's disposal. This took the form of bombastic hand gestures or running off into the rain to play games like tag or ninja with the target.

Most kids didn't like to play ninja with him after playing more than once. Menma cheated a lot and was unusually good at throwing toy kunai knives into the other children's blind spots. That and it was really hard to hit him, almost like he had an invisible force field or something. As it was, Menma would only play a few games and then leave to talk with his brother and sister. Tsubaki and Akone were pretty good ninja, so that's probably where Menma got all his tricks from.

XxXxX

"You're so full of it Akone-niisan!" a rambunctious Menma yelled at his brother while pointing his finger. "There's no way that you actually met the Amekage! He doesn't even talk to the jonin, why would he waste his time on a chunin like you?"

His brother leaned forward and flicked Menma between the eyes to which the boy jerked back and rubbed his face. "You're such a brat sometimes Menma. Why do you ask me questions if you're not going to believe me when I answer them? I've totally met the Amekage. Back me up on this Tsubaki."

Tsubaki looked at him thoughtfully. "Well I guess it's possible. I've never really seen him but I suppose-"

"Ah-ha!" Menma cut her off. "If Tsubaki-neechan hasn't ever seen the Amekage then I know that you're full of crap! She's a jonin, so she's way more important than you!"

That comment earned Menma a hard shove from his older brother out from under the umbrella and into the rain. "Quit being a dick Menma."

"Tsubaki-neechan!" Menma whined. "Akone is being mean to me."

His sister snickered into her hand. "Maybe you shouldn't be such a dick to him then. He's way bigger than you and I don't know if I'm in the mood to protect you right now."

"Oh I get it, you're on his side! Ninja siding with ninja; well if that's the case I'll go somewhere that I'm wanted." Menma stormed off towards the playground.

"Good luck finding a place like that, brat!" His brother shot after him. That earned him a smack in the ribs from his sister.

XxXxX

His mission had been received loud and clear. There was a girl his age being bullied by a group of older boys. He was supposed to extract her and inflict as many "casualties" to the enemy team as he could before his sister came and pulled him out of the brawl and took him home for being "a dick." Man, that was a stretch from the original code but a good shinobi was able to adapt on the fly. Either that or his master's opinion of him had lessened significantly after questioning his "mad ninja skills."

As he approached the group his eyes went hard. They were picking on her for being an orphan and for being weak. Pulling her hair and calling her mean names, saying things like she should be more respectful of ninja. Apparently his master had redefined ninja to mean second year academy student at some point. That or these four kids were full of shit.

Naruto didn't need to try very hard to feel Menma's rage at these boys. If there was one thing that he despised, it was those who used their power to hurt others. He saw the hypocrisy in beating them up for this, but honestly he didn't care. His orders were clear and he was trained to act, not to think. But he couldn't help but feel slightly in the wrong. Handicapped though he was, he was more than a match for any genin and maybe even a chunin if he really cut loose with his Rinnegan. He'd have to try hard not to hurt these kids too badly. Life lessons didn't do the dead much good.

"Oi asshole!"

The bully who was currently holding the girl by the hair turned around and freed up his other hand. "You shouldn't speak that way to your betters, short stuff. Now me and my boys have to rough you up." The other three boys tried to appear menacing and started chuckling. "If you lick my shoes I might just leave enough of your face to left to play kissy kissy with your girlfriend here." The boys surrounded him, an action that just begged for a Shinra Tensei fired off at head level. Menma wasn't afraid though, and that irritated the older boy. The bully got right in his face. "What are you gonna do, you piece of trash?"

Naruto responded with vicious headbutt. The bully went down like a sack of bricks; unconscious with his head split open. Naruto's eyes widened just a bit in alarm. His Rinnegan had reacted instinctively to the pressure and had hardened the skin to metal at the point of impact with the Asura Path. He had to focus more or else these boys would end up dead or in the hospital.

A pair of hands moved to grab him from behind. Naruto let them, judging Menma to be only slightly above average in terms of taijutsu, and forcibly suppressed the pressure wave that was building behind his eyes. Another boy hit him in the face, though Naruto made sure that the blow would miss his piercings. Normally people didn't get their hands slashed open after punching someone in the face; it would look even stranger if it happened in a playground fight.

The bully cocked his fist back to deliver another punch to his face. Naruto decided that Menma had taken harder hits from his brother and it would take more than that to daze him. He hauled off and kicked the boy in the chest with both legs, sending him to ground wheezing.

Naruto then turned his attention to the third boy who had yet to move and couldn't help but let the small smile slip across his face. Apparently his "girlfriend" wasn't as weak as the bullies thought. As the boy went to slug him in the stomach, the girl slammed her open palm against his ear. Hard. Hard enough to send him to the ground with a damaged equilibrium and a burst eardrum. She was pretty good.

Naruto "managed" to struggle free and get off an elbow to the ribs before being kicked in the back of the knee and sent to the ground. That time he'd been armored by the Asura Path. A kid wouldn't be able to tell the difference through his shoes anyway.

Naruto spun around, catching the other boy off guard and began to hammer away at his chest. Personally, he usually preferred to punch the neck, which didn't hurt your hand as much as punching someone in the chest or the face, but apparently Menma wasn't as ruthless as him. The same couldn't be said for his "girlfriend" who was currently biting the boy who Naruto had dropkicked. Like an idiot, the boy just stood there and screamed as he tried to push the girl off of him. He could almost see the frown forming on the Leader's face as he watched the fight through his pupil's eyes. The academy was going to need some stricter tests in the future if this was the kind of ninja that were being churned out.

Naruto gave the boy one last punch to the solar plexus before sending him to the ground with a clothesline. Hopefully his clothing would help to cushion the blow of the iron-hard chakra receivers in his arm. Apparently it didn't work very well, and the boy was left unconscious. How tragic.

Naruto was about to help the girl finish off the last bully when he heard his sister's murderous voice as she ran towards him. He had to wrap this up quick; his goal was to eliminate all the enemies he could.

With a quick kick to the side of the head, Naruto had knocked out the bully turned chew toy. Just in time too, Tsubaki's had clamped down on his ear like a vice. He hoped that Konan would remember about his piercings, blood was difficult to cover up with a henge and his control was probably too low to do it today. Of course she did, but it didn't hurt any less when she started to drag him off kicking and screaming the whole way.

He caught the girl looking at him out of the corner of his eye and turned his head to face her as best he could. She was looking at him with big green eyes behind her slightly darker green hair, silently apologizing for what was happening to him. He flashed her a big shit eating grin and thumbs up.

"What's your name!?" he yelled as his sister continued to drag him away.

A smile came to the girl's face. She was pretty when she smiled. Well Menma thought she was pretty, Naruto didn't particularly care.

"Risa!" She called out and began to follow him until Tsubaki shot her a death glare that stopped her in her tracks.

"Don't encourage him!"

"I'm Menma! Let's be friends!"

A sharp tug on his ear. "Shut up Menma! We're going home. This is the reason why we can't have nice things."

"I'll come to the park every day Menma!" Risa shouted back to him. "I'm sorry for getting you in trouble!"

"Don't worry about it! I'm not scared of Tsubaki-neechan." He stuck his tongue out at her for emphasis. Then Naruto noticed that he was looking at himself. Akone wasn't looking very happy.

"Quiet being a dick, Menma." He grabbed hold of Naruto's other ear and began to drag him away with the help of his sister.

That was the day that Naruto made his first friend, and most likely also the day that he made his last.

* * *

**Wow, that first chapter got quite a response. Thanks for the support you guys. I'm still trying to get a feel for everyone's character, so if I write something strange please tell me. Also, does anyone know if the rinnegan can let a person use elemental kekkei genkai (lava release, gale release ect.)? I know that it gives you all of the elemental natures, but I don't know if it lets you combine them. Maybe using multiple handseals via the Asura Path can create them. Tell me what you guys think. The next chapter might be up tomorrow depending how motivated I feel today *cough*review*cough*. I have lots of ideas for this story, so hopefully I'll be able to update regularly.  
**


	3. Chapter 3

The clash of steel on steel reverberated throughout the hallways of the Amekage's tower. Just as the last abrasive echo was about to die away, it began anew, more fervent in its tempo. The percussive clanging continued to pick up speed until it rose to a fever pitch. Distinct impacts eventually gave way to a curtain of solid sound with no beginning or end; only the constant roar of metal on metal.

Then all too abruptly it stopped.

Naruto shot away from his master, eyeing the man carefully. The Leader's face revealed nothing, as always, but the look in his cold ringed eyes told Naruto that this fight was about to come to a close. And the end was going to be a painful one.

He was going to lose, that much had already been decided, but the boy was pleased with his actions thus far. With every passing day he was able to face up against the Leader's fury just a little bit longer and get just a little bit closer to actually hitting the man. When they had first began to spar with their chakra blades, Naruto counted himself lucky if he was able to last more than 30 seconds. After two months of clawing his way through these fights and coming out of them half dead, the boy had gotten to the point where he could finally hold his own. But even after all of this effort and pain, his skills were utterly laughable when compared those of the Leader.

Though the Leader often relied heavily on the use of his Rinnegan, he was somehow equally dangerous with a sword. He was fast, so insanely fast that all it took from Naruto was a blink of the eye to seal his fate. That was probably the situation that his master was trying to set up. Learning to wield the shared vision of the Rinnegan was far more important to the boy's growth than learning how to wield a blade. And when he could literally see through the eyes of his opponent, there was no excuse for the Leader to hold anything back.

This point was hammered home as the Leader closed the newfound distance in the moment between heartbeats and brought his weapon to bear against Naruto. It was met with an explosion of force which sent the man sailing backward, momentarily deterred in his assault but uninjured.

With his Rinnegan, Naruto could see what had happened. Before impact, the Leader had allowed his own Shinra Tensei to manifest itself. Though powerful in its own right, his technique stood no chance of overpowering his master's. Naruto fought the urge to cringe as he saw a barely perceptible smirk form on the Leader's face. He should've just taken the hit.

As a general rule, Naruto was the one who set the pace of their spars. If he used jutsu, the Leader could use jutsu. If he used the Asura Path, then the Asura Path would join the fray. And if he used Shinra Tensei, Naruto could kiss his sweet ass goodbye because the Leader would make damn sure to use it every 5 seconds until his student stopped moving.

The moment the Leader touched down, Naruto was struck with a wall of force that lifted him off of his feet and sent him sprawling some 50 feet back into the far wall. He pulled himself out of the wreckage as quickly as his damaged body would allow and struck back.

The air around his master distorted slightly before the man was sent careening towards his student at startling speeds. In and of itself, this wasn't so bad; Bansho Ten'in lacked the bone crushing power of its sister technique. The problem presented itself when Naruto flung his chakra blade along with a handful of paper shuriken at the man and then leapt clear.

Knowing that he wouldn't be able to stop in time to avoid the attack, the Leader did what he did best and knocked aside all obstacles that lay within his path.

His student was beginning to become annoyingly clever. The boy knew that he couldn't hope to beat his master in a contest between Shinra Tensei, the power just wasn't there yet, so he exploited the technique's one weakness; the 5 second interval needed to recharge. Naruto was able to stretch that 5 second interval into several minutes by using hit and fade tactics that forced the Leader to waste his technique and start all over again.

Of course, the Leader was able end the fight at his leisure by simply sending the wave out in all directions instead of just ahead, but that wasn't the point of the exercise. The point was to familiarize Naruto with his powers and to allow the boy to come up with creative ways to combat a more powerful foe.

It was a subtle type of mental conditioning that seemed to be falling out of practice in ninja world these days. Tunnel vision became a serious problem for young ninja after they learned their first jutsu. If you taught a genin how to shoot a fireball from his mouth, then that's how the genin would go about trying to solve all of his problems. It didn't mater that the same technique could also be used to limit mobility or to sow confusion amongst the enemy; that genin would keep blowing fireballs until he was blue in the face or until he landed a direct hit on an opponent.

For Naruto, this mentality could become a real problem if wasn't addressed quickly.

The Leader knew first hand just how addictive the power of the Shinra Tensei could be. Simply flick your hand and everything in front of you shatters like glass. But the true strength of Rinnegan only reviled itself when the Paths were balanced. The eye was far more than just a hammer waiting to fall every 5 seconds; its potential was almost limitless. Even on their own, the individual Paths contained a multitude of abilities. But what if they were combined with ninjutsu, taijutsu, or genjutsu? The Leader could try to answer that question for a lifetime and still not even scratch the surface.

He watched as Naruto began to wind down, his seemingly limitless stamina spent. He'd been flying around the dojo throwing paper shuriken and chakra blades like a child possessed as his master brought the world down around his ears, but now there was nothing left. Naruto fell to his knees panting. A peaceful smile had found its way onto the boy's face. Half an hour; that's how long he could survive in a fight against God.

The Leader looked at his student and felt a sudden pang of jealousy. Last time he was able to smile like that was before Yahiko's death. He let the feeling die in his chest; he'd been a ninja for far too long to let something so simple get to him.

"You have done well today, Naruto. Someday you will be able to defeat me, but that day will only come when your pain is equal to my own." He stretched out his hand. "Shinra Tensei."

Naruto's eyes flashed open. "Shinra Tensei."

The waves met in the middle, throwing stone and dust in all directions. Under normal circumstances such an exchange was futile; Naruto had never been able to match the strength of master's technique. But somehow, their power was equal. The Leader watched in mild interest as the energy dissipated leaving his student unscathed. Although he was holding back a substantial amount of his power, it was still quite miraculous that the boy could match his strength after only having the Rinnegan for two months. Perhaps pain really was the key to unlocking the Rinnegan. Such a thing wasn't unheard of. After all, when an Uchiha kills the person closest to them, they unlock the Mangekyo Sharingan. Could there be a Mangekyo Rinnegan? Only time would tell.

Naruto's 5 seconds were up. Unless he had another card to play, or had cut his recharge time in half, this was the end.

"Shinra Tensei."

The Leader was mildly disappointed when he heard Naruto's body strike the ground.

XxXxX

It was Naruto's downtime.

Well not exactly, but it was the closest thing that the boy got to downtime without being in the infirmary or unconscious. He had been given the opportunity to train himself on his own initiative for a few hours every day. At first, Naruto had taken it as a sign of the Leader's trust. But eventually the truth of the matter had come out, and he was left disappointed. Mostly with himself for being foolish enough to let emotion cloud his perception. His master was a great and powerful man, but he was still a Kage and shadow clones only went so far.

Even God still had to do paperwork.

It had gotten to that point where the Amekage's tower was beginning to feel cramped again, so Naruto put on his Menma disguise and headed over to the park. His infiltration skills could always use some work.

Naruto found it slightly unusual for the Leader to allow him out of the tower without either himself or Konan present, but eventually Naruto would have to learn things on his own. Better to do it here in a controlled environment than to turn him loose without the watchful eyes of the Paths to keep track of him. If he really found himself in dire straights, it only took a few hand signs from the Animal Path to whisk him away to safety via summoning.

"Hey, Menma!"

A flash of green over by the swings caught his eye and he waved before rushing over to see Risa. Hopefully he didn't look too different from the last time she saw him, the bandages on his cracked jaw bone from earlier this morning where difficult to conceal.

Apparently his henge was good enough to fool the girl. She bounded over to meet him with a big smile on her face which he tried to return. Again she didn't seem to notice anything strange.

"I was starting to think that you forgot about me. Where have you been for the past few weeks?"

'_In a place that doesn't exist having a fist fight with God. How about you?_'

Menma growled in irritation and mumbled something.

"What did you say?"

He sighed. "I said I was grounded, okay? Tsubaki-neechan grounded me for getting into a fight again."

The girl snickered a little but hid her smile behind her hands when Menma glared at her. "It sounds like this kind of thing happens a lot too you. Don't feel bad though. I get into fights all the time too."

Menma raised an eyebrow at her. "Don't your parents get mad at you?" Naruto felt a little guilty for asking that question. Of course _he _knew that the girl was an orphan, but Menma didn't. Menma was kind of an idiot.

Risa's eyes fell and her smile disappeared. "No. I'm an orphan like you. My parents have been dead for 3 years and I don't have any siblings to take care of me."

"Oh. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up."

She smiled but it didn't really reach her eyes. "It's okay; it doesn't really bother me that much anymore." As a person who excelled in faking emotion, Naruto could spot the lack of sincerity from a mile away. The right thing to do was to comfort the girl, but Menma the idiot didn't understand subtext.

"So if you don't have any parents, who takes care of you?"

This time Risa actually did smile for real. "Masaki-sensei takes care of us. He's a teacher from the ninja academy and he's really cool. Well, actually it's his uncle Sachio who's the real owner of the orphanage, but he's usually asleep. He drinks this stuff that makes him act really silly and then he goes to bed so Masaki-sensei visits us tries to keep things under control. What was that drink called again? Shaky… stocky?"

"Sake."

"Oh yeah! That's what it was called. You're pretty smart Menma."

'_Oh good. The owner of the orphanage is a drunk.'_

"So are Masaki-san and Sachio-san nice to you?"

Risa had started to wander around, apparently getting bored with talking. He forgot that he was an unusual child when it came to sitting still and doing what he was told.

Her voice floated over to him from the monkey bars. "Yeah they're nice. Since Sachio is asleep all the time me and the other kids can get into all sorts of trouble without getting caught. He hides his old ninja gear all over the place so we can get our hands on smoke bombs and flares and stuff." She pouted. "But Masaki-sensei usually takes it all away from us before we can figure out anything cool to do with it."

'_Well at least he's not cruel. Just neglectful and stupid._'

"You guys get to mess around with ninja stuff? That's so cool! I only get to use ninja stuff when my brother or sister is watching me." He sighed. "But they never let me have any fun."

Risa stopped swinging and looked at him with her mouth agape. "You're brother and sister are ninja? You're sooo lucky! Did they teach you any jutsu? Can you shoot fireballs?"

'_I used to be able to shoot fireballs until my brother stuck me full of chakra blades and cut out my eyes to replace them with the fabled Rinnegan. I could turn this playground to rubble with my eyes, does that count?'_

"No." he sighed dejectedly. "They only teach me chakra control. Chakra control is so lame."

Risa bounced over to him. "Yeah that's the way Masaki-sensei is too. Apparently I'm pretty good at it but it's still boring. He says I might have a kekrei gempai."

"Kekkei genkai."

"Yeah that's what he called it. Ya wanna see?"

Both Naruto and Menma were interested this time. He'd never heard of a kekkei genkai that increased chakra control before. He wondered how it would manifest itself. Chakra control took place in the mind so it was impossible to tell how good a person's control was without a jutsu to demonstrate it. What was more likely the case that this Masaki-sensei was too excited for his own good and wanted to see Risa as someone special. She probably just had above average control.

"Of course I wanna see! How does it work?"

Risa closed her eyes and clasped her hands in front of her. For a long time nothing happened, she appeared to simply stand there. Then she moved. It was small and hardly noticeable unless you were prepared to look for it, but Naruto saw it with the aid of his Rinnegan. Slowly but surely the girl began to float upward into the air until she was suspended about a foot above the ground. He couldn't help but let his eyes widen in shock.

She was walking on air.

With his Rinnegan, Naruto could see how it worked. Her chakra control was so good that she could hold air molecules together long enough to stand on them. Naruto had heard of wind jutsu that did similar things, and had once heard from his master that an ANBU in the village was able to fly short distances by releasing concentrated blasts of chakra, but this was entirely different. That ANBU was able to use his technique maybe 10 seconds in total before he collapsed from chakra exhaustion; Risa had been hovering in the air and skating little circles around him for the past minute and showed no signs of tiring.

"That's amazing." He whispered in awe, unsure if it Menma or himself who was talking.

The girl let herself drop to the ground and did the best to hide the blush on her face. "Thanks Menma. I know it's nothing cool like the Sharingan from Konoha, but it might come in handy when I join the academy next year."

'_You don't say…'_

"You're joining the academy next year?"

She nodded. "Aren't you? You're supposed to join when you're six 'cause the program takes about 4 years to complete. I thought you're brother and sister were ninja and that you were going to enter too." Her face fell a little. "You are entering, right Menma?"

Well that came out of nowhere. Here Naruto was thinking that some infiltration practice in the park would be a safe bet where he wouldn't run into trouble. Now he had to play Menma's character at his own expense. Of course Menma would be entering the academy, his siblings were ninja. Naruto on the other hand was a member of Akatsuki and apprentice to the Leader; something like this posed a serious risk of getting him discovered. But he was confident in his skills and would only grow if constantly tested. If he could remain undiscovered for 4 years while being surrounded by ninja, he would have the necessary skills to operate on his own.

A confirmatory hand signal found its way into his vision courtesy of the Leader; he now had no reason to refuse.

"Of course I'm entering the academy next year! I've wanted to be a ninja since forever!"

Risa grinned. "Follow me; I want to show you something." Her hand clamped down on Naruto's wrist and he quickly suppressed the instinct to knock her and the rest of the playground into the next block. This was what he needed; practical experience to control his Rinnegan. He could only grow so fast with only the threat of pain dangling over his head.

"Where are we going?"

She winked at him. "It's a secret. All you need to know is that it'll help you be a better ninja."

Naruto allowed himself to be dragged off to some remote section of the city. He was on his guard. The thought had occurred to him that Risa might be a ninja from an enemy village doing the same thing as him, but he wasn't worried. The Animal and the Human Paths were following them closely. If it turned out that she was the proverbial snake in the grass, she'd end up eating a Shinra Tensei followed shortly thereafter by a Ningendō soul tear.

But Naruto's fears turned out to be groundless. Risa was, for all intents and purposes, just a spunky little girl who wanted to show her new friend some of her stolen ninja tools. She pulled a few bricks out from the alley wall to reveal her stash. A few kunai and shuriken, a basic taijutsu scroll, some smoke bombs and length of ninja wire were what the girl pulled out. Those didn't particularly interest Naruto; he had graduated from normal kunai and shuriken to their paper versions about a year and a half ago and his taijutsu was still top notch – it was one of the few things that the Rinnegan didn't really change. But then she pulled out a small red scroll. _That _caught Naruto's eye.

An uneasy feeling began to well up in his chest. He knew all too well the type of scroll that Risa had held in her hand; it was one of the few sealing techniques that he was actually able to use. It was a burst scroll, a tool to measure a ninja's chakra. A normal scroll contained a sealing array that wove 100 diamonds together. The seals were designed to resist the flow of chakra, and by channeling chakra into the scroll a ninja could cause the diamonds to burst; hence the name. Since all of the little diamond seals resisted the same amount of chakra, a ninja could get a rough estimate of how much chakra they had in their reserves by seeing how many seals they broke.

Naruto looked at the scroll and counted that 3 diamonds had already been burst. That was just about average for a girl of Risa's age. A genin fresh from the academy could burst 10 diamonds. An average jonin could burst 70-80. His master had to use special scrolls where each diamond equated to 100 diamonds on a normal burst scroll. The Leader was able to break 4. He'd heard rumors about a swordsman that wanted to join the organization who was able to break 10 of these special diamonds.

Naruto was able to break 32.

If she put that scroll in his hand there was a very good chance that it would go off like an exploding tag and take off one of his arms. She smiled and began to explain what the burst scroll did. Menma smiled as he listened while inwardly Naruto scrambled for a way to use the scroll without accidentally killing both of them.

It was chakra control training to the extreme. This was NOT the kind of thing that he was expecting to run into when he went to the park today.

"Here you go Menma." She held out the scroll for him "just put some chakra into it and see how many diamonds you break. How many do you think you're going to get?"

"I don't really know. Akone-niisan says that I have a whole bunch of chakra so maybe I can get 20."

God how he wished he could rein in his chakra to only get 20.

She placed the scroll in his hand and he tensed to throw her clear if the need arose, but something strange happened. It was as if all the pressure he was under made something click in his head and he could feel his eyes bending the flow of chakra away from the scroll.

This power… it was Gakidō – the power of the Preta Path.

Naruto watched in fascination as the energy was moved back up his fingertips to settle in his central chakra coils. It made him feel sick to do this – in essence this process was similar to connecting a battery to itself, but he didn't lose his arm so he counted it as a victory.

Risa watched slack jawed as whole scroll lit up with blue fire and then crumbled into ash in her friend's hand. He'd managed to burst all 100 diamonds and probably would've been able to break a good deal more if the energy that she felt was anything to go by. That was unheard of! Even Masaki-sensei could only break 40 of them. Just how powerful was Menma?

"Holy crap, Menma! You blew up the whole thing! How did you do that?"

He rubbed the back of his head in what was hopefully embarrassment. "I wasn't joking when I said I had a bunch of chakra. Most of the members of my family have more chakra then normal."

Risa looked contemplative. "Do you think you have a kekkei genkai like me?"

For some reason, that question made Naruto want to burst out laughing. As it was, he was able to get a hold of his emotions. "Maybe. It would certainly explain a few things." He was uncomfortable with this line of questioning and quickly changed the subject. "So how good are you with these things?" he pointed to the kunai on the ground. "My sister taught me how to throw them pretty well, so I might be able to help you get better."

In typical childlike fashion, the girl forgot about what she was going to say in favor of throwing sharp objects with her new friend.

XxXxX

He was in the office of the Amekage with his master and Konan. Things had been set in motion when the young boy had told his friend that he would be attending the academy during the following year. It made things difficult, but that was often the case when ninja made long term plans. As it was, the Leader didn't think that the situation was safe unless his young pupil was able to master the core aspect of the rinnegan – the ability to _feel _chakra instead of merely see it. With that out of the way, Naruto's lack of control would become a far simpler issue to deal with, and he wouldn't have to worry about accidentally loosing his henge in the middle of class.

The Leader did so hate it when he had to wipe out an entire class of would-be genin in order to keep a secret. It meant more paperwork to deal with.

"As always, secrecy is of the utmost importance. I have decided that Konan shall attend the academy along side you." The man's eyes went hard "Do not give her a reason to fulfill her role as your bodyguard."

"I will remain as discrete as my cover identity allows me to, Leader-sama."

The Leader knew all to well how bombastic Menma could be. This was why he always chose a quiet cover identity; it was easier to play the role in unexpected situations. Hopefully Naruto now understood this lesson.

"Very well." The man leaned in close to his student to get a better look at the boy's ringed eyes. "I see that you now walk the Preta Path. Your progression with the Rinnegan continues to astound me Naruto."

"Thank you master."

"But you aren't yet able to feel the chakra."

A small frown appeared on Naruto's face. "That is correct, master."

"I have done all I can to help you with this ability, perhaps another teacher will be able to show you something that I couldn't. Go to the library in the basement. He is waiting for you there."

"Hai, Leader-sama." And with that, Naruto turned and left.

Konan turned to the Leader. "Shall I accompany Naruto? I don't trust that man. He doesn't respect you or the organization, and sees all of us as pawns in his little game."

"No. We will continue to let him think that his plans are unknown to us. It's not the time to strike yet."

The woman merely nodded. She hoped that the Leader was right.

XxXxX

Naruto pushed open the heavy iron door which sealed the library and used a small fire jutsu to light a nearby candle. Though he wasn't able to use Gakidō often without feeling ill, it did wonders for his control. He might even be able to work some of his old jutsu now. That thought brought a small smile to his face.

As he walked into the room, he was immediately hit with the smell of mold and musty books. He found it rather pleasant in a strange way and allowed himself a few moments of relaxation as he began to aimlessly peruse the maze of shelves.

All at once, he felt the man's presence at his back and the cold point of a kunai against his neck. Through indomitable strength of will, the boy kept himself from leveling the library. Shinra Tensei was useless against this opponent anyway.

"You're getting careless Naruto. What if I was an enemy?"

"If you were my enemy then you would be dead by your own hand. Kill the jailor and the prisoner roams free. And the fox seems to be quite eager for a rematch with you."

A chuckle came from behind him and the kunai withdrew itself from his skin. "I'm sure it would be. It's been awhile Naruto. How are you?"

The boy turned and locked his ringed eyes with that of the masked man's slowly spinning Sharingan.

"I have been well, Madara-sama. Let us get down to business."

* * *

**This chapter would've been up on Tuesday except that it was my birthday so I was busy doing other things. After that, I realized that I really didn't like the chapter so it took me about a day to rewrite it. I'll try to update this story quickly, but weekends are usually a no go because of school stuff. Hopefully I'll be able to crank out one or two chapters a week for the foreseeable future, but I honestly don't know how things will go. I know how this sounds, but reviews and the like really help to motivate me and to focus my creative process. If you like the story, or feel that some things still need work, just tell me what you're thinking.  
**

**Also, this might not be the best place to post this, but does anyone have an Akatsuki timeline that tells when all the members joined (or left in Orochimaru's case)? I've been bouncing around the internet and have come up empty handed. If it becomes too much of a hassle, I'll just make things up but that feels lazy to me and is only a last resort. **

**Now I know some of you are looking at me and saying, "Plagius, the diamonds add up to 22 if you count Pein's 4 diamonds, Kisame's 10 and assume that everyone else has about 1." The thing with the diamonds is that not all of akatsuki is accounted for. Kisame isn't a true member yet (he's only looking to join), Itachi is still in the leaf village, deidara is still a bomber for hire, zetsu isn't known to be in the organization yet, and Kakuzu currently has no partner. I'm counting Pein, Konan, Sasori, Kakuzu, and Orochimaru as members as of this point. Pein has 4 diamonds everyone else has about 1 which brings them to 8. 8X4=32.  
**


	4. Chapter 4

Naruto had never been one for reading. Not for its own sake anyway.

Building up his skills as a ninja had been his one and only priority since the day he was old enough to throw a kunai and mold chakra. The only time he read (if you could even call it that) was when learned a new technique from a jutsu scroll. And even then, those scrolls were more like a mixture of pictographs and equations than actual words. They were just another ninja tool, and like any good tool, the scrolls did their best to impart the knowledge that they contained as quickly as possible. Reading one was regimented, mechanical, and wholly unpleasurable for the young boy. It was just another means to an end. Needless to say, Naruto was less than thrilled when he learned that this study session between himself and the great ghost of the Uchiha would likely last several days.

His spirits fell when the masked man shucked a large bag stuffed to the brim with books and scrolls from his shoulder. It fell to the floor with a decisive thud; causing a small snowstorm of library dust to flutter down onto the pair. For Naruto, it sounded like a coffin lid slamming shut. For whatever reason, no matter how hard he tried, he could never bring himself to sit still. In a way, the anticipation of this crippling boredom that he would have to endure was worse than the physical pain that his master's lessons inflicted upon him. Physical pain was easy to deal with. It was easy to measure and gauge – and things could be done to combat it. But this feeling was something else entirely.

It felt like he was doing something taboo.

A ninja is decisive and proactive. Sitting here in this grungy room reading books was neither of these things. Naruto felt this odd sensation like he was betraying his master's trust by seemingly doing nothing. Hopefully it would be worth it in the end.

"You seem unhappy, Naruto. Don't tell me the fabled Rinnegan isn't up to task of a little light reading."

Naruto didn't miss the slight tremor of loathing in the man's voice when his doujutsu was brought up, but he chose not to comment on it. It was strange though. The Rinnegan was the tool of the Rikudō Sannin; a tool of peace. Madara held the same goal as the Leader, so then why did he hate the power of the Rinnegan?

"I am fine Madara-sama. You've gone to great lengths to gather these materials, and I've appeared ungrateful. I apologize for my actions and thank you for your help."

The man's eye softened a bit. "It is the duty of the Uchiha to help those who are weaker then them. My knowledge," He then gestured to the bag of literature. "And the knowledge of my clan is at your disposal. The Hyuuga have also seen fit to "loan" us a few of their writings on the Byakugan. Perhaps it will help you find what you're looking for."

Naruto gave a respectful bow before picking up the bag and turning to find a place to study its contents. The masked man waited until the boy was just far enough away to be inconvenienced before speaking again.

"Naruto, it seems that I forgot to give you something." He withdrew an unbound stack of parchment from his cloak. "I'm sorry for the mistake."

The boy knew that he wasn't, but it didn't particularly bother him. Madara always had to remind people that they were beneath him. It was a trait that he shared with the Leader. However, Madara liked to resort to petty annoyances and snide comments to put people in their place. Naruto found his way far easier to deal with when compared to his master's beatings.

His hands full with the bag, Naruto called on the power of the Asura Path to create a much needed third arm. The way Madara's eye narrowed was almost enough to make him smirk. Someone had a case of doujutsu envy it seemed. He placed the papers in Naruto's hand and vanished from the room. No doubt he would return in a few days to check on the boy and answer any questions that he had in that condescending tone of his. Naruto placed his study material on the desk and frowned at its size.

Madara wasn't his favorite person at the moment.

XxXxX

Madara was his favorite person at the moment.

True to his predictions, it took Naruto about a week to read through all of the material. He'd gone into the situation dreading the boredom and inevitable dulling of his skills after being inactive for so long. And for once in his life, Naruto had been pleasantly surprised.

These scrolls were unlike anything that he'd ever read before. They were interesting and thought provoking. It seemed like the problem that he'd run into with trying to learn from his master's experiences was incredibly common among doujutsu wielders. Just like fingerprints, no two Sharingan or Byakugan were exactly the same. The method of activating and honing the skills of the eyes varied so widely from person to person that it was almost impossible to predict what would cause them to awaken. In most cases though, the act of battle seemed to play some sort of role. That was curious. He spared with the Leader all the time. In that case, why was his Rinnegan not growing progressively stronger?

He set the thought aside and began to read again.

It was almost like an addiction. Not only were the texts helpful, they were surprisingly fun to read. Most of the accounts of the Sharingan read like a tragic drama. The fervor of battle unlocking an Uchiha's untapped potential and catapulting him to the heights of greatness was a common start to these stories. They often ended with the same man going mad and committing suicide after failing to protect his loved ones or village or something to that effect. Or going mad on his quest to obtain more power and becoming the very threat that he'd sworn to destroy. It was sort of disturbingly romantic and it kept Naruto hungry for more.

Maybe he needed to find a way to blow off stress. Drooling over the personal tragedies of the Uchiha under the guise of training was probably an indicator of mental instability.

But the best story that he read was the last one. It was the stack of papers that Madara had been oh so kind to give to him after forgetting to do so in the first place. They were only a handful of charcoal rubbings, out of place next to the finely bound spare records kept by the Hyuuga and the Uchiha, but appearances in the ninja world were often deceiving.

It was the story of the Sage of the Six Paths. _His _story, written by his own hand and placed in a hidden shrine within Konoha on a stone tablet. It talked about his awakening of the Rinnegan after loosing all that he loved to war and hatred. It talked about how he roamed the land settling conflicts and teaching people the way to preserve peace. It talked about how he fought a primordial being older than time and stronger than roots of the world and tamed it. Talked about how he used his power for good and how he struggled to discover what was right and what made it that way. And in the end, it talked about how the great sage broke his power apart into nine separate beings and gave them names and souls of their own.

"Kurama…" he whispered. Though it could've been his imagination, Naruto swore he felt his stomach twitch a bit.

The story finished as all great stories finish; with evil vanquished and a hope for the future. The Sage probably died with a smile surrounded by his many children. A peaceful end after a lifetime of pain and hard work.

For some reason Naruto felt tears prickling at his eyes at that thought. Would people think of him the same way after he stopped the fighting? The feeling was crushed before it could fully form. He'd promised himself that he would never cry again, and he did not break his promises.

The presence was at his back again, and with it came arrogance. "Do you have any questions? No doubt the material was difficult."

Naruto paused as he thought back on the stories of the Uchiha.

"Just one. Why did you activate your Mangekyo Sharingan?"

Naruto immediately knew that he'd screwed up. This is apparently what happened when he neglected his mental conditioning for a week; his mind and his mouth started to wander.

The man stiffened and no small amount of killing intent flooded over the boy. His Sharingan eye spun wildly, almost glowing in the dim light of the library. "Never ask me that question again." He hissed, grabbing the bag of reading material and vanishing from the room.

Naruto tried very hard not to pass out from fear. He definitely needed to keep up with his conditioning.

XxXxX

Naruto and his master stood atop the roof of the Amekage's tower. From this place, the entirety of the village hidden in the Rain stretched out before them like a great iron serpent of pipes and spires that twisted back in on itself in a strange semblance of perfectly organized chaos.

"Meditate on your learning's in the library this week." The taller man spoke without turning his gaze to his student. "There is a lesson to be learned from the other doujutsu. You use your Rinnegan to see chakra. True, this is one of the abilities that the eye grants you, but it is not the one that you should be focused on. It's more subtle than that. With our eyes, chakra is felt. Look upon the village. Feel the ebb and flow of the energy around you. Your mistake should become apparent to you. I will return at dusk, and I expect results."

"As you will it, Leader-sama." The boy replied to his master's retreating form. "I will not fail you again."

The difficulty of this exercise was not lost on him, nor was it likely lost on his master. He'd essentially been ordered to develop a sixth sense that would drastically change the way he looked at the world in the span of about six hours. But he was nothing if not committed and resourceful. If all else failed he could try questioning Kurama. It was usually willing to sell him secrets at an exorbitant price if he asked nicely enough. But that was only to be used as an absolute last resort.

Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

He walked over to the edge of the tower and knelt as he looked out over the village.

If a normal person was looking down on the village from this vantage point, they would be able to do little more than wonder what kind of sadistic architect had constructed this mess. The long narrow alleyways coupled with multilayered maze of pipes, cables, and other nameless metal protrusions that weaved their way through the village were a security nightmare. By getting onto a roof or cable or the like, an enemy shinobi would have quick and easy access to nearly every part of the city. Of course this worked both ways (Rain ANBU could travel from location to location rapidly without ever setting foot on the ground) but it opened up far too many escape routes and points of infiltration for a normal ninja to feel safe.

But the Leader and his pupil were decidedly _not_ normal. Amegakure was tailor made to fit the strengths of their Rinnegan.

Through the eyes of a Rinnegan wielder, the whole city appeared to be interwoven in strands soft blue light. For a long while he simply studied the way that the ribbons of chakra snaked their way through the village. He knew that this was his mistake – seeing the chakra that is, but it was the only leaping off point that he had. He would have to rely on the information that he'd gathered on the other doujutsu to draw out the intricate machinations of his kekkei genkai.

He'd start with the basics and build from there.

The ability to let the user see chakra was a common trait shared between the three great doujutsu. _How_ they allowed the user to see chakra was a vastly different matter.

The Byakugan exemplified this commonality; in fact, this was the only thing that the Byakugan could do. However, saying that this was the only thing that the Byakugan could do was a lot like saying that the Kyuubi only had a bunch of chakra. Some scope was required for these words to have meaning.

From what he gathered, when chakra flows it acts like a combination of water and light; in other words chakra is a tangible energy that can be redirected or absorbed. It's the Byakugan's ability to see these changes in the chakra in such inconceivably small detail that it creates the illusion of the Hyuuga having eyes in the back of their heads. What was actually happening (or at least what Naruto thought was happening) was that the eye read the minute ripples created when the chakra was disrupted by an outside force, and then it translated it into a physical image in the brain.

In essence, the Byakugan not only sees chakra, but sees _through_ chakra.

This is what he'd been trying to do. He'd been unsuccessfully trying to see the connection between the amount of chakra that his master molded and the hand seals that he formed. This took quite a bit of guesswork out of the equation when he tried to learn a new technique, but it still wasn't enough. A fully realized Rinnegan, like his master's, allowed its wielder to learn a new jutsu almost instantly – only a few botched attempts were required to get the chakra balance correct. More importantly then this though, the jutsu in question only had to be seen once or twice for the user to understand the fundamentals behind the technique. The feel of the chakra was remembered by the brain. After that, a Rinnegan wielder could learn the jutsu at their leisure.

The Byakugan was a dead end; it only reaffirmed that he was mistaken in his approach to emulate it. From there, he began to draw comparisons between his eye and the Sharingan.

Unlike its pale cousin, the Sharingan lacked the optical power to read the waves to the same extent. Only when large amounts of chakra are expended (commonly in the form of a jutsu) or when the disruptions are relatively close can the copy eye pick up on the vibrations in the same way that the Byakugan does. At this point the retina of the Sharingan acts like photographic film, and the image or flow pattern that it sees is perfectly recorded. Like eidetic memory but for chakra.

Naruto paused in his thoughts. '_Maybe it's simpler than that.'_

The wave isn't seen by the Sharingan but is instead felt by it. Felt by it so strongly that the wave is imprinted perfectly on the brain of the host.

Naruto's multi-ringed eyes widened a small bit as that thought hit him. It's felt directly by the brain without any other sensory input. Instinctively felt, the same way that a person instinctively feels pain. It was almost as if the Sharingan behaved less like an eye and more like a nerve – actively conducting chakra to the brain. His mouth twitched downward into the ghost of a frown; something subtle was still eluding him.

Perhaps his master's teachings would make more sense with these new thoughts to frame them.

The Rinnegan did both of these things, but not to the same extent of the other doujutsu. Like the Byakugan, the Rinnegan was sensitive enough to pick large chakra signatures out of the background noise created by naturally occurring chakra, namely people and animals. But it wasn't able to see the ultra weak ripples that flowed through the natural chakra, and thus didn't have the long range 360º vision or the precision to see a person's tenketsu.

At that moment, Naruto realized that part of the answer was literally right in front of him. The Leader was quite ingenious when he wanted to be.

If an area was devoid of natural chakra (like if you were to create an entire city made out of metal), and if the waves weren't able to move freely (like if you were to limit the walk ways to long linear paths) it became almost trivial to locate someone by tracing the bouncing path of their chakra wave. And if one were to become intimately familiar with the layout of the village and the chakra signatures that it held, it became closer to feeling the chakra flow. The Rinnegan only needed to trace the wave for small time before the eye itself took over automatically, calculated the location of the source by feeling the intensity of the chakra, and transmitted the data to the brain. Even now, Naruto could feel his gaze being tugged in multiple directions by the chakra.

Rinnegan, also known in Amegakure as Byakugan-lite.

Below him, about a half mile away, were four signatures. The pull to follow them was stronger than normal which signified they were ninja, probably a genin team with their jonin teacher. He paused, the jonin's chakra felt familiar. It felt…safe? His eyebrows raised a bit as he put the pieces together. It was Konan's chakra. For some reason his Rinnegan had seen fit to latch onto the familiar presence.

It was strange for her to be out and even stranger for her to be with a group of genin. He concentrated on feeling of her chakra and noticed something slightly off about it (though he didn't really know why it felt off to him). There was an extra something thrown into it, an erratic wave that just barely disrupted her normal chakra signature. Now he understood. She was henged. Apparently Tsubaki-neechan had a team. _Why_ she had a team remained a mystery to him, but if he had to guess it probably had something to do with Menma's fate after graduation. If it became important for him to know, the Leader would tell him so. Right now, she only served to distract him from his original purpose.

The more that Naruto thought about it, the more he realized that the Rinnegan behaved similarly to its daughter kekkei genkai – the Sharingan. Both eyes could feel the flow of chakra, but in this respect the Sharingan was clearly superior. A ninja with the Rinnegan learned new jutsu very quickly; a ninja with the Sharingan learned new jutsu instantly. But for the ninja with the Rinnegan, this accelerated learning rate was a fringe benefit, not the be-all and end-all of his doujutsu. Where the Rinnegan truly shined was in its ability to _generate_ chakra waves.

A thought hit him out of the blue and it was almost enough to bring a smirk to his lips. He was getting close. He could feel it, both literally and figuratively as the storm above seemed to pick up tempo and his eyes began to freely comb through the web of chakra. This was what his master had described when asked about his own discovery of the Rinnegan's powers. Nothing, nothing, and then bam; epiphany! Suddenly everything hit you at once and you couldn't, for the life of you, tell why you weren't able to figure it out before.

The fabled genjutsu death stare that the Sharingan was able to inflict on a person was likely the last remnant of its precursor's trademark ability. It only manipulated already existing chakra within the opponent's mind to trap them in an illusion. And even so, it could only manipulate one part of the whole – it could only manipulate the yang chakra which governed physical existence.

Shinra Tensei, Bansho Ten'in, the weapons of the Asura Path, and even his chakra rods – all of these powers were created through the manipulation of yang chakra. They were considered by his master to be the easiest to learn. In fact, many ninja used yang natured chakra without ever even realizing it. The very same chakra was used in the creation of genjutsu; hence Naruto's theories on the Sharingan's stare of death. Perhaps the Rinnegan could do something similar; he'd make a note to ask the leader later. Or better yet, he could ask Madara... though probably not anytime soon.

He was nearly there. All the pieces were laid out before him, now he just had to put them all together.

The Deva Path and the Asura Path were already open to him even though he couldn't use them to their fullest extent yet. Why were they open? Because they were governed by yang release and his Rinnegan was unusually powerful when it came to generating yang chakra. Perhaps it had something to do with the demon sealed inside him. Or maybe it was because of the pain that he felt during the operation. Physical pain awakens physical energy? It was certainly a thought worth entertaining. The writings of the Sage could have been speaking about this, but most of his discoveries were couched in mystic symbolism. It was just as likely that the man could've been trying to teach a philosophical lesson.

But there was one thing that the Sage had stated directly; all of the Rinnegan's abilities stemmed from the manipulation of yin, yang, or a combination of the two. The trick was in figuring out how to create the proper balance.

From what he had read and what his master had told him, the Human and Naraka Paths manipulated yin. The former removed it from a living creature and the latter injected it into something that was previously dead. Since he first had to feel the nature of yang chakra before his eyes could create it, he would only be physically able to use the Human Path initially. At least, that's what the Sage wrote; not all doujutsu behaved alike after all.

But if Naruto was indeed similar to the Sage, it meant that the Preta and the Animal Paths acted the same way. Both used yin and yang simultaneously to create living beings from nothing (in the case of the Animal path) and to remove corporeal substance from existence (in the case of the Preta path). Again, he would have to feel the yin and yang simultaneously though the Preta path before he could create it in the Animal path.

He stood as his master approached, having long since felt his massive chakra wavelength before the man had a chance to reach the top of the tower. He relaxed and allowed his eyes to link with that of his master and the other Paths. Before, the jumble of information and visuals that assaulted his senses would've left him dizzy and helpless, now he understood so clearly what he had been doing wrong.

Seeing but not feeling.

The visual link was a radar sense. You felt the wavelengths that the other Paths felt and bounced the signal between one another like a relay station. Like a nerve. The differing perspectives of the same wave were used for triangulation when at rest, and for prediction during the heat of battle when an opponent's chakra flow was strong enough to overcome the background noise.

He watched through his master's eyes as the door to the roof swung open.

"You seem to have made some progress."

Naruto gave a curt nod, still looking out on the village as he did so.

"Watch my hands and feel my chakra. Your control should be far greater than before if you truly understand the Rinnegan, so failure is unacceptable. I will give you three tries, but you should only need one." The Leader spread his hands to the sky and let the rain beat down upon him. "You've watched me perform this jutsu almost every day. You've felt its watchful presence since you were a baby. It is a tiger that vigilantly protects its young and lets no evil near them." He formed the hand signs with practiced ease, and with his newly awakened Rinnegan, Naruto felt as if he was weaving the seals.

"Rain Tiger at Will."

The storm above seemed to gather in strength and the rain pelted down around them ever harder. Naruto began to form the seals; he would make his master proud.

"Rain Tiger at Will."

The sky reacted to the sudden influx of chakra and immediately the storm became a deluge. He could feel through the Rinnegan and the rain that villagers were now scrambling to get inside out of the downpour.

"You have done well Naruto. Begin relearning your forgotten techniques. I want all of them mastered by the time you enter the academy."

Naruto couldn't help the small smile that formed on his face at the Leader's praise. "Hai, Leader-sama."

The second Rain God of Amegakure had been born. Only time would tell if he would become a God of mercy, or a God of vengeance.

* * *

**So what did you guys think? I'm worried that it might feel like a drag to read through a chapter where nothing physical happens, but I wanted Naruto to have an awakening of sorts with regard to his rinnegan. I didn't just want to cast an Author Handwave no Jutsu type a few x's and say "Poof! Naruto knows how the rinnegan works. Let's get down to blowing things up!" Do these ideas seem plausible? I tried my best to stay true to the lore of the Narutoverse, but also play with the rinnegan (and the other doujutsu a bit) and make it my own since there's not much information on how it works. I'm especially nervous about posting this chapter so reviewing and telling me what I did right or wrong would really help me out. It takes me about 5-7 hours to write one of these chapters, so if you could spend few minutes to tell me what you thought it would mean a lot to me. If I don't know what I'm doing wrong or what my readers like, I'll keep making the same mistakes over and over again.  
**


	5. Chapter 5

The months ran together in a blur of hard work and discovery after Naruto had, at long last, unlocked the secrets of his kekkei genkai. Within 3 days, his chakra control had returned to the level that it had been at prior to the operation. Then it soared far beyond anything he would've ever thought possible. In the past, he had been fighting with his unruly chakra tooth and nail to get it to behave in the way that he wanted; now it simply flowed like water. He could feel the slightest fluctuations in his chakra coils and adapt to their influence giving him unparalleled control over his techniques. And the kicker was that he didn't really feel like he was doing anything different. Things just worked now. Naruto could only marvel at the power of the Rinnegan. It had taken his academy graduate level control (if he was being generous) and dialed it up to the point where he was comparable a chunin medical-nin.

And with that age old handicap finally out of the way, he was able to learn like never before. His old jutsu returned to him and he quickly set about mastering them as per the Leader's orders. With a few final pointers from Konan, he was officially done with the Dance of the Shikigami and set off to dig into something new.

One thing that Naruto had been itching to try since the moment he first saw it was streaming his chakra through an object, namely a kunai or shuriken. The paper kunai that he and Konan used were already sharper than any normal blade just by token of being created and strengthened by chakra. It was a simple task for one of those knives to bite into solid rock, but with the aid of wind chakra or lightning chakra their cutting power became virtually peerless. Nothing short of a Rashōmon would be able to stand up to the blade's edge.

But with a bit of creative thinking and a lot of chakra control, the technique could turn almost anything into a weapon. For instance, earth chakra streamed through a normal paper parasol could produce an impromptu war hammer at the drop of a hat. Better yet, it made for the scariest kind of war hammer; one that was hidden and could strike from anywhere. With enough chakra flowing through it the frail object could gain the momentum of a wrecking ball. A single tap could break bones and rupture organs, and a full on overhead swing could turn your assailant into little more than chunky salsa and a bad memory.

The only thing that had kept him from immediately learning the technique after Konan had shown him its power had been his total lack of control. Streaming chakra was very difficult to accomplish unless you were gifted with Konan's precise control. This meant that it often required weapons forged from special chakra conductive materials to be a viable option in combat. Furthermore, the process of learning to stream chakra was ludicrously dangerous without taking months of careful study to learn all of the ins and outs of the technique. Many a ninja had committed unintentional suicide by accidentally streaming lightning chakra though themselves as well as their weapons. But originally being a wind user meant that Naruto didn't have to worry about this problem. In his case, if he messed up he would've most likely end up vivisecting himself. Or exploding like an overfilled balloon.

Suffice to say, when the Leader and Konan had forbade him from learning the technique he wasn't exactly broken up about it. But it was always in the back of his mind somewhere; gnawing at his subconscious and tempting him with its power. Now, there was nothing that held him back from learning it.

He tore into Konan's teachings with gusto, which resulted in him getting more than few electrical burns…and wind burns… and normal burns. Somehow he'd even managed to get earth burns. Naruto didn't know _how_ a person could even get such a thing, but he was channeling earth elemental chakra into a kunai when his hand started to smoke, so apparently that was an earth burn. Maybe it had something to do with an increase in friction. Since earth chakra increased the density of an object it wasn't too much of a leap to think that might have also increased the frictional force in some way. He'd figure it out later if it became a problem.

After two months and many more mishaps, Naruto was able to reliably channel wind, lightning, or earth through his chakra rods. Fire still had a tendency to blow up in his face (rather literally) when he streamed it, and water was given a pass due to a lack of utility. He was pretty sure that a weapon covered in water chakra had the potential to be the deadliest of them all, but it required phenomenal chakra control for it work the way he wanted it to. Like control on the same level as Tsunade of the Sannin. But if it worked the way he thought it did, it would end up blowing all the liquid out of an opponent on a solid hit. Which was something ultimately pointless for a ninja who had access to the Ningendō. It did the same thing only quieter and with more finality. Too many forbidden techniques existed that could reverse a fatal blow; ripping out a person's soul almost always ended a fight.

But if Naruto was being fully honest with himself, the idea of a technique that knocked the blood out of an opponent scared him. It was unnecessarily gruesome and definitely an agonizing way to die. He had to kill because it was the only way to achieve peace, but that didn't mean he wanted to make people suffer needlessly. And he most certainly didn't want to do something like that.

This was more or less what he told the Leader when the man had questioned him on why he was no longer trying to weaponize water chakra. He'd expected the man to become angry and force him to pursue the technique. Or possibly throw him through the nearest wall with his Rinnegan.

Thankfully, neither of these things happened. His master simply nodded and agreed with him that such a technique was ill suited for someone who walked in the footsteps of the Rikudō Sannin.

However Naruto's relief was short lived. His discussion with the Leader drew attention to something that the boy had been hoping to put off for as long as possible. Naruto had yet to take a life. The fact he was still a child meant nothing; it was overruled by his status as a ninja. And ninja were killers by nature.

This problem would be remedied immediately.

XxXxX

Once again the pair stood at the top of the Amekage's tower. The rain poured down from the inky night sky in sheets, setting an appropriate mood for what was about to take place. It was somber; similar to how Naruto felt at the moment.

His master pointed to the outskirts of the village. A normal person wouldn't have been able to see their own hand in front of their face in this much darkness, let alone the object that the Leader was pointing to. But that didn't mater to Naruto; he could feel the unfamiliar chakra wave quite clearly.

It was the chakra wave of an outsider.

"Now you will learn how to lay down the judgment of God." The man dropped his hand from the target and turned his attention to the storm above. "You have seen me perform this jutsu before, so I don't need to stress what's at stake should you fail."

A nod.

"It is dangerous and powerful, and must therefore be tempered by caution and patience. Moreover, it is purely controlled through the feel of the chakra – there are no seals because your chakra doesn't activate the technique, it merely acts as a guide for the lightning already in the clouds. After the strike the storm will dissipate, so you must be precise."

Another nod.

"It's named after the mythical beast Kirin. Legend tells that Kirin is a creature much like you and I. It is a holy being; a creature of peace. When it walks, it bends not a single blade of grass and causes no ripple to form when it crosses water." The Leader's voice hardened. "And Kirin does not allow evil to remain unpunished in its presence. When you strike, you must do so as Kirin would – not a single blade of grass can be bent, and not a single evil heart can remain."

"Understood, Leader-sama."

"I am entrusting the lives of my people to you, Naruto. Do not fail me." Though it was difficult to pick out, Naruto could hear the slight hint of concern is his master's voice.

"I won't Leader-sama."

He let his Rinnegan link with that of the other five Paths. They had currently surrounded the target's home and were waiting for Naruto to strike. He scowled. The person who'd infiltrated the village was a ninja, probably a jonin due to the strength of the wave. And Naruto didn't miss the fact that this new wave had taken the place of one of their citizens who now probably lay dead in some obscure section of the village.

In a fit of hypocrisy Naruto would murder the murderer.

He didn't like it. It just didn't make any sense to him. Worse yet it directly conflicted with the teachings of the Sage. Violence only bred more violence; surely there was a better way than this to protect the village.

For the first time in his life, Naruto began to question if the Leader was truly right to do this.

"Perform Kirin, Naruto."

"Hai, Leader-sama." The conditioned response was out of his mouth before he could stop it and his body was already in motion. It was just as well. A weapon wasn't supposed to question its orders. For a moment he'd forgotten what his purpose was.

He clasped his hands in front of his body in a meditative pose as he felt his Rinnegan manipulating the energy in the storm clouds overhead. It was raw lightning, pure and untamed, that coursed through the air above him. A single mistake would bring down enough energy to decimate a small mountain, but Naruto forced himself to remain clam and let his eyes feel the connection between himself, the storm, the Paths and the target.

For a brief moment time seemed to stand still. Naruto could feel the aspect of Kirin take shape in the form of a raging beast and streak down to meet the target; its roar the sound of a thunderclap as it devoured evil in a flash of light.

His master felt it too.

"Now."

Naruto released the storm's power. Just as he'd seen, a bolt of lightning split the night sky like a great luminous scar before touching down on the target. The jonin's chakra wave was lost within the massive chakra signature of the jutsu and the clap of thunder. It didn't resurface in the aftermath.

The jonin was dead.

"This is what it means to be a ninja, Naruto. We are bringers of death. We must be in order to protect that which we love. Remember this feeling, and embrace it." The Leader turned and left, leaving Naruto alone in the night.

His hands were trembling and his legs were weak. The moment of that jonin's death had been forever ingrained in Naruto's mind. With his Rinnegan, he could recall the very instant that he felt that chakra signature vanish forever.

The Leader had told him to embrace this feeling, but the only thing that Naruto was feeling was emptiness and cold.

XxXxX

In dwindling weeks that came before Naruto's official induction into the ninja academy, the boy managed to unlock the Human Path. Like always, his new powers were severely limited but it was yet another step in the right direction.

For once in his life, Naruto was reluctant to learn something. He didn't want to become proficient in the techniques of the Human Path because they revolved around only one thing; inflicting death.

There was no arguing that the Path was powerful; it was any assassin's wet dream come true. It killed quickly, silently and almost instantly and there was never any doubt as to whether the target was actually dead. But that was just it; Naruto didn't want to kill… well anything. With his Rinnegan, the boy could literally feel his connection to every other living thing that he came into contact with. It was almost as they were a part of him. Actually, it was almost as if there was no him and them; they all simply _were_.

It seemed deeply wrong for him to tamper with that existence all for the sake of increasing his own strength.

However, in the end it didn't matter. The Leader ordered him to use the new Path in spite of the boy's obvious emotional distress. When the Leader had first used Ningendō, he was in too much pain over the death of his friend to really think about what he was doing. He wanted to use the Path. He wanted Hanzō and his ninja to loose their souls to him. In time, he knew that Naruto's weakness would go away. The boy simply hadn't yet experienced enough emotional pain to know how to ignore these new feelings.

Since his powers were weak, the Leader started him on easy targets. Plants and flowers and the like had chakra systems but weren't able to control where their chakra flowed. Thus they couldn't fight back when Naruto forcibly extracted the yin from their forms.

It felt strange to him as he watched the plants wither and die as he held their "souls" in his hand. He had this kernel of uncertainty that kept worrying at the back of his mind like an annoying grain of sand stuck in his shoe. It felt like he was tampering with things that should be left alone. But he did his best to push these doubts aside and continued his training, making a note to read up on new methods of keeping his emotions in check.

Then he graduated from plants and moved on to small animals like mice and rabbits. At that point, Naruto _knew _what he was doing was wrong. The second ability of the Human Path allows the user to see the thoughts of their victim; which was something that plants didn't have. Animals most definitely did. Naruto could feel the fear of the cold and darkness that those animals felt when he robbed them of their essence. Ningendō hurt them. He was making them suffer.

Knowing that there was no turning back, Naruto resolved to redouble his efforts. When he utilized Ningendō, he would make sure that the victim's end was quick and as painless as possible.

But as he continued to train his Rinnegan, his mind began to suffer the consequences. Nightmares plagued him nearly every time he slept. Visions of people's faces twisted in wordless agony as he ripped the spark of life from their bodies danced behind his eyelids. More than a few times, he saw himself doing these things to Risa or, worse yet, Konan-chan. The frosty kunoichi was the closest thing that he had to mother or a sister, and though he found Risa to be a little annoying, she was a good person with a kind heart. Naruto didn't wish this fate on anyone, least of all them.

Except for that man. Naruto was willing to make an exception for him.

When he first dreamed about killing the Leader, Naruto was appalled with himself. Not only did it go against everything that he'd been taught, but he was wishing to inflict harm on a good man. Wishing to harm God himself because of his own shortcomings. The Leader was only doing what was necessary to bring peace to the world. Though he was almost tyrannical in his teachings, it was only because he was trying to unlock his student's true potential. He didn't want to make his pupil suffer…right? Naruto had remembered the barest hints of a smile on the man's face as he watched his student tear the soul from another living being. Naruto could tell that the Leader's gaze was focused solely on anguish in his eyes. He wasn't smiling because his student was learning.

He was smiling at the boy's pain.

Doubt had begun to worm its way into the boy's mind and slowly he became paranoid and angry. He now got far too much pleasure from his dreams where he watched the light fade from his master's eyes. Of course he told no one about these dreams and continued with his training as normal. They would only lead to more trouble. He did what any good ninja would do, and bottled them up in some dark corner of his mind.

They were, after all, unnecessary for the completion of his mission.

XxXxX

When Naruto finally began to attend the academy he quickly realized that it was going to be far more difficult to stay under the radar than he'd originally hoped. With the exception of himself, Konan, Risa, and a scant few others; these children were entirely out of their freaking minds!

The first thing he'd witnessed upon reaching the academy with Risa, was a pair of 3rd years having a knife fight on the jungle gym. And nobody seemed to care! One of the teachers was keeping a lazy eye on the altercation to make sure no one got hurt too badly, but other than that it was business as usual. Even Risa seemed only slightly perturbed by the scene, but probably just because she didn't want to catch a stay kunai. She didn't care what happened to these boys in the slightest. As long as they kept it to themselves, they could go at it to their hearts content.

When he'd asked her about it, she just looked at him like he'd grown a second head. He'd quickly explained that he and his siblings lived in one of the richer districts of the village, and they had only warned him to stay alert when he went to the academy.

She explained that most of these kids (herself included) were orphans, and that very few people cared what happened to them as long as they didn't actually kill each other. And even then, it wasn't a rule that was strictly enforced. The Amekage had his ninja out on missions almost constantly, and the civilian police only dealt with civilian matters. The orphans were just sucking money out of the village's pockets; it was in the village's interest to let them handle their own business. Out on the streets, it was dog eat dog.

Naruto was blown away. The Leader never told him about these kinds of things. He knew that there was a similar situation happening in Kiri, with their civil war and all, but he thought that that was an isolated incident. His faith in the Leader was soundly shaken.

And from there things only got stranger more surreal. Sometime during the second week of class, Naruto had managed to get on the bad side of the class bully, Junpei by "walking dumb."

The boy was a second year who got held back for remedial courses due to a seriously bad attitude (like "had no qualms about breaking your arms for the fun of it" bad) that was unbefitting of a ninja. To him, everyone else was weak, so he could do as he pleased. He was the best taijutsu user of his old class after all, and he was itching to try out some of his moves on the "baby genin."

Junpei was right; any first year would be decimated in a fight against him. The problem was that he wasn't fighting a genin.

He was fighting one of the Akatsuki.

And it was a short fight.

Naruto had tried his best to defuse the situation nonviolently. He'd simply tried to walk away. Seeing this as a sign of weakness, Junpei had grabbed him by the arm and started squeezing, hoping that the "baby genin" would start crying. The boy had just looked at him with these creepy cold dead eyes and said nothing. That made him angry. Who was this little bastard to think that he was better him!? He'd cocked back a fist to break the boy's nose only to receive a punch in the throat. Hard. When he staggered back coughing the other boy had simply kicked him aside, like he was dealing with a piece of trash. "Please don't bully your peers." He'd said in overly polite tone. "We're all trying to become ninja together; that makes us comrades. We should look out for one another instead of fighting." Then he kept walking with his green haired friend like nothing had even happened.

Junpei's blood boiled. No one treated him this way. This kid was definitely going to die. After spending a few days of trailing him, he knew the exact place to enact a little Amegakure justice.

XxXxX

"Bye Menma-kun." Risa waved to him as she continued on her way to the orphanage and he began to head to his "home" in the rich district.

"Bye Risa-chan. I'll see you tomorrow."

He turned and walked for about another half mile before cutting through an ally. This was about to turn ugly, and he didn't want to deal with the repercussions of being seen by a civilian. With the line of sight broken between him and his pursuer (who was really bad at muffling his footsteps) Naruto quickly signed the situation to The Leader and awaited a reply. Through his Rinnegan, he saw the man sign back a capture order. That was odd, but then again the whole day had been odd. Academy students shouldn't be able to get their hands on exploding tags as easily as some of his classmates had been able to. It was his hope that the ceiling would be fixed by the end of the week, the rain made it difficult to take notes.

He was pulled out of his musings by the sound of metal being dragged on stone behind him. God, this kid was, without a doubt, the worst ninja ever. This kind of behavior would've never flown if Ame's ninja population wasn't run so horribly thin.

Naruto turned around to see Junpei walking toward him with a sadistic smirk and a rather dull kunai being dragged across the brick wall. Instead of running in fear or pleading with him like the other boy had been expecting, Naruto just crossed his arms in front his chest and looked thoroughly unamused. Almost bored.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Naruto questioned passively as the boy continued to approach him. "Don't forget that I'm a ninja. We're often prone to defending ourselves if the need arises. You might not like what that entails."

Junpei scoffed. "You're not a ninja; you're just a baby genin. I'm a ninja. See my knife?" Naruto dragged his gaze lazily to the kunai. "This is going in your gut unless you apologize for what you did to me and beg me for forgiveness."

"I'm sure it will."

This kid was really starting to piss him off with this cool attitude of his. "Yeah, and after that I think I'll pay a visit to your little girlfriend. She lives at the orphanage in the 4th district right? I bet that drunk old man won't even wake up when she starts screaming." That comment got to the kid, and Junpei smirked.

Naruto felt rage bubbling up inside him and whispers for the boy's blood. That had never happened before. He didn't know why he was having this strong of a reaction over Risa and at the moment he didn't care. All he knew was that he was going to enjoy this far more than he should.

He dropped his henge and got no small amount of satisfaction from the look of abject horror that crossed Junpei's face as he took in the long black cloak covered with red clouds. The same cloak that Lady Angel wore. This kid was one of God's ninja.

Junpei turned to run but his legs were quickly snagged by something. Paper? A single long sheet had wrapped itself around his limbs and he struggled madly against its grip. He was about to scream for help, but another sheet covered his mouth. Before he could react, something slammed into his body with the force of a train. It sent him skipping into the wall of the ally with no fewer than 20 broken bones, and he lay there unable to move. The pain was so excruciating that only his blinding fear was keeping him conscious at the moment.

Naruto grabbed hold of the boy and flared his chakra.

The pair disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

XxXxX

It was dark. And he hurt all over. He'd been unceremoniously dumped on the floor after the other boy and grabbed hold of him and somehow teleported them out of the alleyway. He was blubbering rather loudly through his paper gag, but he didn't care. God was going to have him killed.

He was going to die!

Junpei's mind more or less snapped at that. He began thrashing vigorously only to start howling in agony over his broken bones.

Suddenly he was wrenched up and into the air by the boy who used to be Menma. He had just enough time to realize that there two left hands gripping his shoulders before a third hand slammed into his chest.

"Ningendō."

A sound similar to ripping of fabric filled his ears, and a painful cold spread through his veins like ice water. The last thing he saw was the boy's steely ringed eyes before everything went black.

For Naruto, everything that the boy had felt hit him at once and he struggled to stay standing. If he'd thought switching from plants to animals was bad, switching from animals to humans was utter torture. He wanted to die before inflicting such pain on another human being.

He hated Junpei, which was saying something, but he didn't deserve something like that. No one did.

"How do you feel Naruto?" The Leader asked.

Naruto watched wordlessly as the Paths began to carry the body away as if it were a sack of flour. He could still see the look of horror frozen on Junpei's tear streaked face.

'_Remember this feeling, and embrace it.'_

"I'm fine, Leader-sama."

But he wasn't. His hands were so bitterly cold.

* * *

**Wow, I don't know what was wrong with me in the last chapter. All I can say is that I'm sorry for all of the mistakes and that I think I got them all. It's nice to hear that people enjoyed my interpenetration of the Rinnegan's abilities (sorry about the yin/yang mixup, Narupedia lied to me!... or I'm bad at reading). Thanks for all the reviews so far, they're really helping me out. **

**A lot of heavy stuff happened in this chapter. I'm kind of a dark guy, and a war-torn Amegakure has the makings for a field day. I'm curious to hear what you guys think though. Was it too over the top? I know that the manga is usually pretty light and happy, but I was writing this from the perspective where things have realistic consequences. Personally, Amegakure reminds me of some third world nation state that's run by a warlord. Worse yet, he's a magic warlord that people worship as a God. ****When your leader is a guy who draws physical power from pain, ugly things tend to happen. **  


**And yes I stole Sasuke's jutsu. Pein can make it rain whenever he wants and can feel the power of the storm with his eyes; he's bound to have a jutsu that takes advantage of that. Kirin just seemed to fit so well. **

**One more thing (a la Uncle) A reader asked me some questions and wanted me to post the answers here. I have no problem with answering general questions, but these get into spoiler territory and I can't answer them here. If anyone has a question that goes into spoilers just send me a PM and I'll be happy to answer to the best of my abilities.**


	6. Chapter 6

His master signaled the kill order.

"Ningendō."

The familiar sound of ripping cloth filled the air. If the noise still churned his stomach as it had done in the past, Naruto did a good job of hiding his discomfort behind a veneer of cold indifference. He no longer flinched at its cruel hiss, and didn't pay any mind to the icy rush of pain and fear that flowed through his body. Numbness had set in months ago; the cold bite of death had long since lost its potency after having been subjected to it so many times.

It plagued his dreams constantly. His sinister eyes seemed to have a mind of their own; taking sick pleasure in forcing their wielder to relive the death of his victims ad infinitum. He'd lost count of how many people he'd killed; lost count of the number of souls he'd gathered as a steel eyed Shinigami, and honestly he found it hard to care.

Very soon his light would be gone. The Rinnegan was twisting him into something dark, robbing him of his emotions and warmth until he was left with nothing. The Human Path was leaching away his humanity. What bitter irony. For years, he'd tried unsuccessfully to deaden his emotions and become a weapon for the Akatsuki. Now that his goal was finally within reach, he didn't want it anymore.

His gaze settled to figure crumpled at his feet. A small orange alley cat stared back at him with flat dead eyes. It was strange that the Leader wanted him to use his powers on such a creature, but he supposed that the man had his reasons.

For the last few weeks, the small creature had gotten into the habit of following him and Risa to the Academy and then following him home after they'd parted ways. It was unnaturally attached to him, and took every opportunity to rub against him or splay out in front of him and demand attention. Risa had named it Happy; apparently she'd read a manga that featured a cat named Happy. She would be heartbroken when the little feline didn't turn up to walk them to school tomorrow. Menma would be heartbroken too, he'd probably cry long and hard when they discovered Happy's body.

Menma seemed to be crying a lot these days.

Naruto flicked a drop of rain away from his eyes and continued on his way to meet Risa and Masaki-sensei at the ramen shop. He would look awfully silly if he showed up late for his own birthday.

XxXxX

Menma grimaced as he picked at the food in his bowl. He would never understand why people actually liked to eat this stuff. It was wood! Who in their right mind decided to garnish a perfectly good bowl of noodles with wood?

Risa smirked at her friend's plight and poked him in the arm with her chopsticks. "Eat your menma, Menma."

Menma sent her a flat look. "That joke _still _isn't funny Risa-chan."

"Masaki-sensei thinks it's funny." She mumbled around a mouthful of noodles. Her smug look turned into a squeak of alarm as the man in question rapped his chopsticks on her head.

"Risa, don't lie to your friends."

"But I'm a ninja." She pouted. "You always say being a ninja is all about deception. Don't tell me that you were lying when you said that."

The man rubbed his goatee "I suppose I did say that. Well in that case, you can lie as much as you want as long as it doesn't incriminate me."

She quirked an eyebrow. "Incrima-what?"

"Don't be a dick Risa-chan." Menma explained unhelpfully.

That comment earned him a smack on the head from both Risa and Masaki-sensei.

"Just eat your menma, Menma." His teacher goaded as he began to drink the last of his broth. The boy sent him a dirty look, but Masaki pretended not to notice. He was annoyingly hip in that regard.

Grudgingly, Menma finished his meal. For awhile, the trio just lazed around the ramen shop and talked about ninja things. Well more accurately, Masaki-sensei tried to talk about ninja things as his two students hounded him with questions.

"So what's your favorite jutsu Masaki-sensei?"

After a little bit of thought the man spoke. "Probably the henge. It's definitely the technique that I use the most." His students looked at him blankly.

"You're a boring guy Masaki-sensei."

"Yeah, Menma-kun's right. Even I can do the henge, and I'm not even a second year yet." As if to get her point across, the girl henged into Tsubaki and began to whack her "little brother" with a chopstick. "You're the reason we can't have nice things!"

"Ow! Ow! Quit it! What the hell kind of birthday is this? Masaki-sensei, help!"

The man watched the scene disinterestedly. "You're not hitting him hard enough. Follow through with your wrist, and you'll be able to get more power out of your swing."

"I meant help me, dammit!"

He snagged the chopsticks out of Risa's hand. "Stop swearing Menma, it's unbecoming of a shinobi. And Risa… turn off your henge, it's creeping me out to hear your voice coming out of Tsubaki-san's mouth."

Tsubaki stuck out her tongue before turning back into Risa. "Why does that creep you out so much? Do you like her or something?" Masaki's blush answered the question for her. "Awww that's so sweet! Does she know that you like her yet? Have you guys kissed?"

"Please don't answer that." Menma pleaded, clearly uncomfortable with the current situation. "In fact, let's never talk about this again."

For once, Masaki agreed with his student. "Fine with me."

Risa still had little hearts in her eyes "Oh, but-"

"Never. Again." Menma and Masaki's cold dead eyes bored into her and she let the words die in her throat. Those guys could be scary when they wanted to be.

"So why do you like the henge so much? Don't you know other cooler jutsu, like a fireball or something?" Her jade eyes lit up as she said fireball. Risa would most likely grow up to be a pyro.

The chunin rubbed the back of his head. "Sure, I know jutsu like that, but they're only situationally useful. I've lost track of the number of times my neck was saved by a bit of quick thinking and a henge."

"Situ-what now?"

"Fireballs are only useful some of the time, a henge is always useful. One time, I disguised a rolled up exploding tag as a cigarette and flicked it into my target's house as I walked by. I was in and out before they ever knew I was there."

Menma's ears perked up. "You can henge something other than yourself?"

"Of course you can; you can henge almost anything to look like anything else if you have the proper amount of chakra control. Granted it gets kind of iffy if the objects are of differing sizes, but you can still do it." Masaki paused, as if he was reluctant to tell his students his next thought. "Personally, I don't like to henge myself. It can cause…problems."

Risa tilted her head in question. "What do you mean?"

Menma was also paying close attention to his teacher's words.

The man sighed. He didn't really want to tell these kids about the ugly truth of the ninja world. They would have a lifetime to come to terms with the bleak reality of the shinobi/kunoichi, right now they should just worry about being kids and having fun. Those big questioning eyes continued to bore into him and eventually he cracked.

"Keep in mind that this only happens some of the time." His students shared a look and then nodded for him to continue. "Being a ninja is hard. It's tough thankless work that only the best of the best undertake so that they can help their village. Sometimes it becomes necessary to take a life while in service to the village." Risa gulped but Menma remained eerily calm – almost lost in thought. "After doing something so terrible, sometimes people try to escape. They can't deal with the emotions that they're feeling so they bottle them up inside. But as strong as the human mind is, it can't deal with these emotions forever. Sometimes a new personality is created by the mind; a stronger personality that can deal with these emotions. The henge makes it far easier to fall into this trap. I once knew a guy who went on a hack and slash mission near the end of the war. He disappeared during the mission, so we all assumed that he was killed in action. A few years later we find out that he's the wife of a famous chief out in Rice country." Masaki took a sip of water. "That's why I don't henge myself. I'm afraid that I'll forget who I really am."

For a long time the pair was silent. They just looked at him with wide eyes as he continued to drink his water.

"You can't be serious." Menma cringed.

"Oh, I'm dead serious. It happens quite a bit. Happened to uncle Sachio for a little while. I think that's why he's so reluctant to give up all his old ninja tools; it tells him that his memories are real and keeps him grounded to reality."

Risa's eyes fell to her hands. "That's so sad. I just thought that he was paranoid or something."

"Yeah, well you guys asked so I told you. That was bad idea." He forced a smile onto his face. "I'm bringing down your party Menma, here this is for you." Masaki reached into his vest and withdrew a small jutsu scroll. "Happy birthday. You've always had a lot of chakra, so you might be able to learn these if you ask your brother and sister to help you out." He pulled the scroll out of reach and gave Menma the evil eye. "Don't break anything."

Menma nodded and unrolled the scroll. Inside it detailed two techniques: the Hidden Mist jutsu, and the Black Rain jutsu. His eyes lit up at the description of the Black Rain jutsu. It more or less covered an area with inflammable liquid that behaved like water; which meant it could be incorporated into water jutsu. With a bit of work, he could aerosolize the liquid into a vapor that clung to the surroundings. Risa's eyes bugged out of her head as she finished reading the description over his shoulder. Masaki-sensei wasn't the most responsible person at times.

"This is awesome Masaki-sensei! I promise I won't set anything on fire."

The man caught Risa drooling on Menma's shoulder out of the corner of his eye. "It's not you that I'm worried about."

XxXxX

A pair of robed figures traveled across the mud choked fields of Rain country in silence. Though their faces were hidden beneath the wide brims of their straw hats, it was easy to tell that one was a woman and the other was a small child. If one were to look closely enough, they would be able to see a ring on the woman's hand inscribed with the symbol for "white" glint after the occasional flash of lightning. The boy kept his arms crossed firmly in front of his body and seemed to skate across the top of path on a cushion of air. Bells chimed softly in time with their procession; making sure their presence was not ignored or overlooked. The few travelers that they encountered made sure to give the pair a wide birth.

It wasn't often that members of Akatsuki broadcasted their presence so openly as this. To do so was to admit to crimes of the highest degree. While in the borders of Rain country, its members were regarded with careful respect; anywhere else and they would be met with kunai and jutsu. Secrecy was one of the biggest concerns for a ninja, but it was the defining trait of the Akatsuki. Only the very best were recruited, which often meant that your head was worth a fortune to the right village. As such, its members lay scattered all throughout the elemental lands in order to divert attention, and largely remained quiet and kept to their business. When red clouds, rings, and straw hats were donned, it was never without purpose. And it almost never ended quietly.

Konan kept a careful watch on her young charge. It was unlikely that anyone would challenge the authority of Akatsuki within the borders of Rain, but that wasn't what had her worried.

Naruto was changing. Changing in the same way that Nagato had. He was becoming distant and disinterested; it had been months since she'd seen him smile. Only Menma smiled now, and that was starting to concern her. She and the Leader had discussed the boy's training at length but the man was blind to her concerns; he only cared about the power of his weapon. He'd greatly overestimated the strength of Naruto's will. It was subtle, but she could tell that Menma was beginning to become less of a cover identity and more of a split personality. It was easy for her to see the change since she spent so much of her time looking after him, but to the Leader it merely appeared that Naruto was master of espionage. Repeated use of the Rinnegan had left a deep scar in the boy's burgeoning psyche.

When they'd left Amegakure, the pair had created Paper Clones to fill their seats at the academy. The Menma clone almost seemed afraid to be in the tower, like he'd never seen this place before. Worse than that, there were a few seconds were Naruto didn't seem to recognize his clone. It was like they were two different people.

"I feel him." The blonde said as his steely eyes scanned the surroundings. "Shall I get visual confirmation?"

Konan shook her head. "He likely already knows that we're here. He has quite a gift for controlling the situation. Remember your manners, he is quick to anger and already has a reason to want you dead. The body of a Rinnegan wielder would make a fine addition to his collection."

"Yes mother." The boy droned as he began to pick up speed.

A small smirk formed on her face. He may have been becoming unstable, but at least he wasn't lost entirely. She followed suit and began to walk faster, Sasori did so hate it when people kept him waiting.

A half hour later, the pair had made it to the meeting place. It was an abandoned village on the border of Ame and Suna; long since destroyed in one war or another. Charred skeletons of houses and shops littered the landscape and only half of the village wall still stood. Many people believed that this place was haunted. Travelers would go out of their way to avoid the ruins, and even the most gung ho nuke-nin would think twice before coming here. They would be alone in the valley.

From what Naruto could feel through his Rain Tiger jutsu, the puppet master would be with them shortly. Not a minute later the telltale chirping of a bell met their ears accompanied by the soft mechanical whirring of the man's footsteps. They stood motionless as the blocky wooden figure walked up to them.

"I have kept you waiting, I apologize." The gravelly voice spoke.

"No apology is required, Sasori-san. We arrived early; Naruto was uncomfortable flying our colors so close to the border."

Sasori's glass eyes settled on the boy. Immediately he took note of the Rinnegan, as well as the array of black rods that dotted the child's flesh. This would be most interesting. It had been a long time since he'd witnessed the power of the Rikudō Sennin firsthand.

"In that case, he is much wiser than he looks. How old are you boy?" Naruto locked eyes with the other member. The puppet master was surprised at the amount of pressure he felt under the boy's gaze, he would have to keep a close eye on this one.

"My sixth birthday was four months ago. How old are you, Sasori-san?"

Clever. The boy was gauging his reaction with those eyes to figure out what type of fighter he was. Sadly, Hiruko's lifeless form would tell him nothing.

"Older than you are brat. Respect your elders."

It was his turn to watch the boy. Though he hid his reaction well, Sasori's analytical abilities were second to none; the boy betrayed much of his fighting style without ever saying a word.

"I assume that you will be watching over us to make sure I don't add the brat to my collection?" Konan simply stared at the man; she was one of the few people that he couldn't read. "Then would you mind setting up a barrier? I intend to test the boy's abilities and I expect the demonstration to get rather noisy." The woman fell apart into paper and quickly surrounded the village, leaving Naruto and Sasori alone.

"Do you know who I am, boy?" The puppeteer questioned nonchalantly as a wicked iron tail slowly snaked its way out from under his robes.

Naruto appeared unfazed. "You are Sasori of the Red Sand; the Scorpion of Sunagakure. You fight with puppets and poison. My master tells me that you are one of the most intelligent men that he's ever met, and that I shouldn't underestimate you."

Sasori chucked as Hiruko's tail twitched menacingly; glinting in the light. "That's correct; however in this fight I will not be using my specialty poison. The Leader would be most displeased if I killed you. And so I find myself at a disadvantage. You know much about me and I know very little about you."

"A ninja is only as good as his secrets. I have no reason to tell you my abilities."

Sasori nodded. "That is a very smart thing to do, but you forget to look underneath the underneath. I'm learning more and more about you by the second, and already devising new plans to defeat you."

"Which means I should end this fight quickly." The blonde finished for him with just a hint of smirk playing at his lips.

The puppet master chucked again. "That's right. Don't forget that this match is to be non-lethal." Hiruko's tail cracked upwards. "And try not to break too many of my toys; it's a nuisance to replace them."

The puppet's tail struck down with startling speed, only to stop a hair's breadth away from Naruto's neck restrained by a web of paper chains. A small tremor shook the ground as the boy locked eyes with the puppet.

"Shinra Tensei."

A wave of force ripped through the air in front of Naruto, sending the bulky contraption careening through the air like a rocket. It crashed through the ruins of a house without even breaking momentum and landed somewhere out of view. Then suddenly, Naruto was on the defensive.

A swarm of puppets armed with all manner of weaponry descended on the boy. His chakra rods were out and alight with lightning in the time it took to blink, and already he was carving a swath through the endless barrage of mechanical figures. Through the power of the Rain Tiger, Naruto could feel a pair of puppets approaching from behind in an attempt to target his blind spots. Senbon and swords rained down on him from all sides, leaving him with no hope of countering the expertly coordinated attack. That is, until a second set of arms wielding chakra blades sprang from his back and speared through the puppet's chests.

Naruto became the center of a whirlwind of lightning and black steel as he continued to form chakra blades; bouncing them off the ground, the puppets and other airborne blades as he cut his way free. In the mess of movement and light, the puppet master failed to notice a third pair of arms weaving hand signs.

"White Forest Emergence." Twisted needlelike spires of paper shot up from the ground in all directions as the boy was once again forming seals. "White Forest Blizzard." As quickly as they had appeared, the ivory protrusions began to unravel and fire sheets of white death in every direction similar to a pipe bomb. The corpses of shattered puppets lay pinned to nearly every building for two blocks.

Sasori was impressed; it was a good thing that he hadn't been using any pieces from his collection other than Hiruko. A blast of chakra drove the thoughts from his head as the building beneath him was knocked down with the ease of a sand castle. His momentum stopped dead as an unseen hand began to drag him back toward the boy. In an instant, the air was filled with the screeching whine of a hundred origami shuriken coated in wind chakra. The puppet's reinforced wooden body was shredded like coleslaw beneath the avalanche of blades.

Naruto felt the kawarimi go off, but had no time to react as his body was suddenly snared with chakra threads and held motionless. A heartbeat later, a brace of needles filled the air from seemingly all directions. He reacted on instinct. "Gakidō." The strands evaporated and he shot into the air on paper wings just a split second before being peppered by senbon. He returned fire with a handful of shuriken, but Sasori was already gone again.

Fire filled the sky and raced toward Naruto, but he leveled his ringed gaze on the blistering cloud and flattened it beneath a wall of force. From the other direction, a gout of pressurized water sliced through the air to meet him only for him to explode into paper just moments before impact. He reformed on the shell of nearby building and leapt clear as senbon once again raced to meet him.

As he hit the ground, he formed the final hand seal, and the village was enveloped with mist. Sasori's eyes clicked as they switched over to infrared mode and he scanned for his target. For a long range stealth fighter such as himself, the boy was a terrible matchup. This was the Leader's rain jutsu that was pelting down on them. As soon as he moved it had already relayed his new position to the boy. Coupled with being shrouded in this fog, the boy would always know his exact location, and might even be able to predict his movements if the boy was skilled enough. If this was a death match, he would've long since pulled out the Third; as it was he was low on ammo, low on soldiers, and out of luck. And the boy just kept coming.

He vaulted through the air as a rod imbued with earth chakra leveled the house that he was standing on just moments ago. The assault continued as he shot from building to building, each one turning to rubble upon being struck by the ultra dense projectiles. But Sasori pressed on, headless of the destruction that nipped at his heels; his gambit was nearly set up.

Naruto spun out of the way as a radial saw swept past his head. All around him dilapidated masonry and ramshackle puppet parts sprang to life and launched at him. Somehow, he hadn't been able to feel the charka threads connected to them. He flung out his arms, releasing a blast of force that reduced the makeshift weapons to dust. Then he was blocking senbon and weaving hand signs yet again as more marionettes reanimated and fired upon him.

A wall of paper surrounded him a half second too late as a pair of senbon buried themselves in his chest. Numbness quickly spread though his body, and soon both the wall, and Naruto, fell to the ground. He looked to a nearby building at the smirking face of a red haired puppet.

"You gave me quite a run for my money; I didn't think that you would make it past the initial wave, let alone this far."

"I thought you weren't going to use poison."

Sasori crossed his arms. "I said I wasn't going to use my specialty poison, I didn't say anything about not using poison at all. You're foolish to trust the word of your opponent."

"Noted. Shall we call this one a draw then?"

Sasori sniffed the air. The chemoreceptors in the puppet's nasal cavity quickly confirmed his suspicions. "You filled the whole area with gas. When?"

Naruto's vision was starting to blur but he was still lucid enough to answer the question. "There's a mouth beneath my robes that's been releasing Black Fog this entire time. I don't have to worry about the explosion since I can absorb the chakra, and there's probably enough gas in here to take you out. And I don't mean the 'you' that I'm talking to right now; I mean the 'you' that's two blocks away. The…the one with the core."

Sasori simply nodded.

"Now it's…" Naruto's eyes refused to focus and his breathing had become labored. "Your turn. How… how…"

"How did I mask my chakra threads?"

The boy grunted in affirmation.

"Just a hunch really. I noticed that after you used those wide area gravity and paper techniques it would take you a few seconds to find my position again even with your jutsu. It was almost like feedback. Chakra threads are delicate, your own power kept you from seeing them."

Naruto had stopped moving.

Sasori sighed and walked over to administer the antidote. He would've been a pretty bad teacher if he accidentally let his student die.

* * *

**It might be a little while before I update again. Lots of end-of-the-year projects are coming up, and work is about to get crazy for me. I'll try to update once a week, but I can't make any promises. **

**Hopefully the fight scene turned out well. I wanted it to be believable instead of a one-two Shinra Tensei like a lot of other stories tend to do. And before you ask, Sasori would have easily won in a full on "fight". Fight is in quotes because Sasori is the kind of guy who would kill you when you're sleeping, or better yet has someone else kill you when you're sleeping while he's safe at home tinkering with his puppets. **

**Also the pairing is back up in the air again. Konan is probably still in love with Yahiko, and I'm finding that Naruto and Konan have more of a mother/son type of relationship anyway. I'm thinking of NaruxKarin, NaruxTayuya, or NaruxHinata(everyone screams), but I'm still open to suggestions. There are tons of ideas flying around in my head, so feel free to share your thoughts with me. **

**As always, reviews and PM's always make me smile :)**


	7. Chapter 7

Akasuna no Sasori was many things. He was intelligent, cool, and mechanically efficient; perhaps even more so than the army of puppets he commanded. In addition to being the most famous puppeteer in the entire world, he was also one of the most fearsome of engineers, be it mechanical or chemical. If you were bring a birthday cake to Sasori and say "please weaponize this" you could be damn sure that by the end of the week that cake would be able to fire senbon and poison gas six ways to Sunday. Incidentally, Sasori was also a man who didn't get invited to many parties.

He was a master of strategy, so much so that while still in the employ of Sunagakure he was dubbed as the youngest grandmaster of taikyoku shōgi in the history of the village. And after his defection, the number of pieces that he had on the playing field only grew larger. Shadow King Sasori; the man who ruled no fewer than 4 minor villages without ever showing his face, or even letting people realize that he ruled them for that matter. An army of sleeper agents and spies acted as his puppet strings, and knowledge was the treasure that this king horded. Only the Leader, and perhaps Jiraiya of the Sannin, could claim to have equal wealth.

But there was one thing that he most assuredly was _not_. Sasori was not a patient man.

Naruto was awakened roughly from his drug induced slumber by the man's sandal clad foot colliding with his ribs.

"On your feet, brat. If you're this easy to put down then the Leader made a serious error in judgment when he chose you as an apprentice."

Naruto groggily regained his footing only to pitch forward as he began to stand. "This stuff is potent. It attacks the nerves in the inner ear or the motor cortex correct? That would explain why I can't stand up."

Sasori leaned over and put his face just a few inches from Naruto's. "You tell me. What can you tell just by looking at my face?"

The boy stared hard into the puppet's glossy eyes and predictably found nothing. "Your puppet doesn't tell me anything, but your chakra flow and your operational background are what I'm currently examining." A small grin formed on the puppet's mouth and he motioned for the boy to proceed. "It's very faint, but I can feel your chakra fluctuate when you become interested in something. You find my question… intriguing?" The smiling puppet remained silent as he continued to watch his pupil. "No that's not it. You find the implications behind my question intriguing. You're curious to see just how good I am at reading an opponent."

Sasori's smile widened just a hair. "Perhaps. I have been known to prod at people to see what they'll do."

"With that poisoned tail of yours, am I right?" Again the puppet said nothing; he just smiled in his strangely vacant way. "From what little I know of toxins, I'd be willing to say that I'm right about the abilities of your poison. It's most likely derived from scorpion venom due to the paralytic effects I'm still feeling." The boy shook his tingling hand for effect. "And probably the venom of a coral snake, which I hear are common in Suna during the cooler winter months. Though I suspect it's been diluted seeing as how I'm still breathing."

"Well, aren't you the clever one?" Sasori tilted his head questioningly. "Anything else?"

Naruto stared at him for a few more seconds before understanding dawned on him. The boy formed a hand sign and, as he'd predicted, nothing to happened. "It wrecks its victim's chakra control. Even if I had wanted to kill you, I wouldn't have had the control to spark the air. I was in the palm of your hand the whole time."

Sasori scooped the boy up and flung him onto his shoulder like a sack of flour. "It's almost as if I had to work to become an S-rank ninja, isn't it? Welcome to Akatsuki, brat. Now let's see you earn those robes that you're wearing." The puppet master took a sweeping look at the sprawling timber remnants of his backup collection. "Let's start with you repairing all the damage that you've caused."

A smirk came to his face as he felt the Rinnegan wielder deflate.

XxXxX

In the days that followed his tussle with Sasori, Naruto learned much from the man. Everything he did was precise and surgical; no wasted effort would be exerted from the master craftsmen. And everything had a purpose. The tedious act of rebuilding upwards of 60 puppets taught the boy about engineering and machines. After his tenth time doing so, Naruto could successfully recreate a standard battle puppet from memory. By the time he was halfway done, the boy was coming up with new ways to modify the contraptions to serve purposes other than battle (mentally of course since Sasori would be furious if he fiddled with his collection). And by the end, his mind was full of ideas for new machines that could serve him in the future.

The senbon launchers were especially fascinating to him due to their inherent usefulness. Unless he absolutely had to, Naruto was against taking a life. Senbon tipped with nonlethal toxins were starting to look like a fine alternative when compared to single mindedness of his current skill set. Better still, Naruto was almost certain that with a little work he could use the Asura Path to create such weapons. All he had to do was get a better understanding of how to convert the mechanical parts into something chakra based, and he would be in business. Wind chakra or fire chakra seemed to be a good source of a propellant, but until Sasori's poison wore off he wouldn't be able to tell. And since the man seemed content to dose him every few hours to build up his natural immunity towards the stuff, it didn't seem like he would be able to test his theory anytime soon.

As it was, Naruto busied himself with repairs while Sasori restored and tinkered with Hiruko – the one puppet he refused to let his student examine. He was fine with teaching the boy how to think like a ninja, but it would be a cold day in Hell before Sasori let someone else paw at his art. Konan did what she was best at and watched after Akatsuki's youngest member, keeping his skills at nonverbal communication sharp since Sasori would likely go to work on them soon. True to her predictions, the puppet master caught on to their conversations and began to interject his own thoughts. It didn't come as too much of a shock since Sasori was the one who taught herself and the Leader how to communicate like this in the first place.

Apparently the man had been refining his skills, adding subtle chakra shifts and muscle movements to his repertoire, since Konan had last seen him. With her years of experience, she was able to pick up on the meanings of the gestures quickly. Naruto took quite a bit longer to grasp the nuances of this new silent language, but by the end of the month he was able to understand his teacher's messages.

After finishing the puppet repairs and having his work dubbed acceptable (or maybe it was avant garde; he wasn't able to tell due to his inexperience with the code) Sasori began to teach him how to work a new jutsu. It was a technique that allowed the user to spray poison gas from their mouth; undoubtedly useful, but not exactly a shock when your teacher is the Scorpion of Sunagakure. Normally, learning the new technique would've been as easy as feeling it with his Rinnegan, but his teacher was an avid proponent of learning under pressure. Being poisoned every other hour proved to be quite an adequate handicap in the eyes of the puppet master.

XxXxX

Naruto ran though the signs yet again, but the end result was the same as it had been all week. A small plume of violet smoke exited from his mouth and floated a few feet forward before vanishing. This was his chakra control nightmare all over again but multiplied tenfold. As a jinchuuriki and an Uzumaki, Naruto was gifted with an absurd amount of chakra. He could, and routinely did, throw Shinra Tensei's for hours without rest and had never once succumbed to chakra exhaustion. Frankly, he and the Leader had thought that such a thing was impossible for someone who could break 32 (now 34) diamonds on a Burst scroll. Apparently they had been wrong.

The blonde panted with exertion as once again formed the seals and was rewarded with nausea instead of a gout of purple fog. He looked to Sasori, who was fiddling with a large metal contraption packed with black powder inside of his makeshift workshop. The puppet master no doubt knew the boy's question and had already sent him a coded reply, but Naruto was barely able to stay standing let alone decipher Sasori's non-speech. For a few more seconds Naruto stared at his teacher's head. His gaze was broken when a senbon found its way into his navel courtesy of a detached puppet head. Shinra Tensei hadn't automatically activated as it normally would; he must've really been running on fumes for that to happen.

With a twinge of pain, Naruto plucked the needle from his stomach. He was just about to cast it aside when Sasori's message reached him. Now he wanted to bang his head against a wall over the obviousness of the solution.

'_Kurama.'_

No reply. The fox was troublesome like that; it enjoyed watching its host squirm for a bit before helping.

'_Some assistance would be much appreciated, Kurama.'_

The Kyuubi's voice rang out in his mind; deep and commanding. "**I never part with something for nothing, boy. You should know that by now. What are you willing to give up in exchange for this 'assistance?'**"

'_The normal fee should be sufficient. Minor control of my emotions and access to my memories for the next 24 hours seems like a far trade.'_

For awhile the fox was silent as it pretended to mull over its decision. It was like an annoying child that thoroughly enjoyed taking up the time of others. Perhaps he'd be able to get closer to the fox in the future. At the moment though, it still seemed a bit miffed that its jailor had 'stolen' the eyes of the Sage.

"**The trade is acceptable. Don't spend it all in one place**."

Crimson chakra surged through Naruto's body; flooding him with energy and strength as it burned away the toxins in his system. His vision ceased to blur and he couldn't help the feral grin that came to his face as he one again weaved the signs for the Poison Mist technique. As his hands came together in the final sign, a shrill whistle from Sasori was the only warning he had before things went wrong.

A roiling mass of scarlet fog exploded from his mouth like an ocean of blood. Naruto watched with no small amount of horror as his surroundings began to melt like wax and crumble to dust. All of the puppets that he'd spent so many painstaking days on restoring dissolved into mush under his jutsu. His thoughts immediately turned to Konan's safety and he activated the power of the Preta Path to stem the flow of the fog and clear the immediate vicinity of the lethal cloud. The rapid intake of bijuu chakra had him on the ground clutching his chest in anguish; he could almost hear his tenant laughing at the boy's lack of foresight.

He quickly searched for Konan, only to find her standing next to Sasori safe and sound in his workshop. The puppet master had taken it upon himself to set up an impressive array of seals around his building that seemed to be warding off the chakra. Against anything other than aerosol attacks, the seals would be useless, but right now it was the perfect tool for the job.

The puppet master watched a range of emotions flicker across the boy's face when he realized that they were safe. He also didn't miss the way that the boy's gaze softened and hovered on Konan an unusually long time before switching to him. He could feel the woman at his side begin to relax as well; most curious. He'd have to keep a close eye on these two.

Sasori quirked his eyebrow in a manner that silently asked 'are you kidding me?' His student seemed uncharacteristically bashful at the moment as he rubbed the back of his neck. "You're going to fix all of those puppets, brat." He pointed at the perimeter of slush that surrounded Naruto. "Again. And quickly this time."

The boy face faulted; finally collapsing from exhaustion as Kurama's chakra left him.

Sasori produced a jar of smelling salts from his robe. "Fainting doesn't help you 'cause I'm a chemist." The puppet master said in singsong voice as he walked towards the unconscious blond.

Konan sighed. Sasori really didn't like it when people kept him waiting.

XxXxX

After his little episode with the Kyuubi, Naruto's training became a far simpler task. Due to the intensity of the Leader's training, the boy was already well acquainted with the healing power granted by the bijuu's chakra. What he hadn't realized was that the chakra also worked to neutralize harmful foreign elements within his body; in this case poison. Not only that, but it also raised his tolerance to future doses of the toxin quite drastically. With Kurama's chakra, it only took a few seconds before the boy had been granted permanent immunity to poisons.

However, the seemingly simple act of using the fox's chakra came with its own set of problems.

For starters, it hurt… a lot. This is coming from a boy who broke his bones on a regular basis and had his eyes cut out while still conscious. Naruto was no stranger to pain, he knew it quite intimately in fact, but this feeling was unlike anything he'd ever experienced before. It felt like his entire body, his very soul, was submerged beneath a vat of boiling acid. Every second that the chakra flowed through him was a second that the boy wished he was dead.

That fact puzzled Sasori. He'd heard through the grapevine that bijuu chakra was corrosive by nature and that it actively harmed anyone who was in contact with it, but he'd never heard of it causing this amount of pain. Most unusual. He'd be sure to have one of his contacts investigate the kinjutsu vaults in Konoha for an outline of the boy's seal. That old bandaged bastard still owed him a favor from his last sortie into Fire Country anyway. Until word got back to him, Naruto would just have to use his bijuu's power sparingly.

Which was fine because the Kyuubi wasn't overly eager to lend the boy his power to begin with. And it was especially unwilling to help after Naruto realized that he could use coax out a sliver of the beast's power with his Rinnegan. Since the boy had seen fit to shit all over their previously established deal, the fox had no problem with trying to take over Naruto's body whenever it was presented with the chance.

And if all this wasn't bad enough, it had serious physical drawbacks as well. The fox's chakra healed its host and filtered poisons from Naruto's body by essentially hijacking his existing biology and augmenting it to work hundreds of times faster than it did normally. This resulted in near immediate exhaustion for Naruto, and probably would've killed him if not for his Uzumaki heritage. As a child, he just didn't yet have the fat reserves to sustain such metabolic activity. This made him curious to see what extensive use of Gakidō would do if he used its power to absorb chakra from his surroundings. Theoretically it would work, but he wasn't looking forward to testing his hypothesis anytime soon.

So Sasori stopped poisoning him (the boy had blown through most of his prepared stock anyway) and began to teach him through more conventional methods like sparing and bookwork.

Naruto's initial experience with the puppet master gave him a small amount of insight as to how the man fought, but it soon became apparent how much his teacher had been holding back. It was like the man had a Sharingan on steroids! Not only could the nuke-nin predict every single attack that his student made, but he could also predict entire combinations of attacks; right down to the feints and counters that should have been random. And the scariest part was that Naruto was far more adept at taijutsu than his teacher. Sasori openly admitted to the boy that his taijutsu skills were steadily declining due to him lacking a physical body. His muscles were only as strong as the gears and pulleys that drove them, and his muscle memory was beginning to get foggy after 20 years of disuse. He was low jonin level and falling while Naruto was easily mid-jonin with the aid of the Asura Path and Human Path's one shot kill. Yet the boy could never even touch him; Sasori beat him in his mind long before he beat him on the training field.

That was where the books came in. They covered an assortment of topics from anatomy to psychology to strategy and even high level mathematics. Naruto guessed that some of these were the puppeteer's personal musings, as indicated by the similarities between the words in the book and the seals that he drew. It talked about Sasori's thought process as he approached a given situation and how he had the uncanny ability to notice things that were out of place. From there, his mind would form branching connections with everything else that he'd experienced, giving people the illusion that he could see the future. Honestly, it was pretty close to the truth. He called it weaponized inductive reasoning, and it gave him the ability to kill a man without ever needing to dirty his hands.

Through the help of his Paper Clones, and just a pinch of foxy chakra, Naruto's taijutsu was elevated to high-jonin level in just a few months. And as if the deal wasn't sweet enough, it would be something that would get stronger as he grew older, as opposed to his physical skills which would tank when he hit his first major growth spurt.

It was around this time that Sasori grew tired of theory and decided that the boy required some 'hands on' experience with his new abilities. They packed up their belongings, conjured up some new identities, and headed across the border into the proverbial lion's den with their paper shadow dutifully in tow. The Leader apparently had an interest in establishing a rapport between his weapon and the Kazekage's youngest child.

XxXxX

As the bar door swung open the stench of stale blood and alcohol slammed into her like a ton of bricks. Her dopey grin and bouncy demeanor didn't drop for a second as she and her grandfather entered the local watering hole. She quickly took in the sight of bar and, if possible, got even more spring in her step.

Tables full of howling drunken Sand-nin surrounded a giant iron cage at the center of the building which fenced off a partially sunken arena. Within the cage fought a pair of kunoichi. Well one was fighting; the other was doing a good job of eating her opponent's boot. This kind of situation was surprisingly normal for the desert dwellers. After all, when you're miles away from town with only sand and wind to keep you entertained, you had to invent your own fun. Blood sport was always viable option to get a few laughs and make some quick cash when trekking across the wastes of Wind Country.

That was why Naruko and her grandfather Teru were stopping at the bar anyway; the spunky little blonde loved a good scrap. And as long as she paid the cover fee, and didn't cry or kill anyone, the Sand-nin wouldn't care that she was a 10 year old girl. She had her Kusagakure hitai-ite, which meant that she was an adult who could do as she wished. If she wanted to throw her money away and get her teeth kicked down her throat by a man who outweighed her by 200 pounds, no one here was going to stop her. They would, however, laugh at her and rummage through her pockets for loose change after she was unconscious.

As the unlikely pair made their way the counter they managed to draw quite a few eyes from the Sand-nin. Even in a place as wild as Wind Country, it wasn't everyday that you saw a hyperactive blonde literally hop her way over to bar counter with a double fistful of ryo notes.

"I wanna fight the biggest guy you've got in here!" The barkeep raised an eyebrow as the she slammed the wad of cash on the counter, sending coins and bills scattering everywhere. "And I bet 5,000 ryo on myself!"

The bar went quiet as its occupants stared at the girl's outburst. A round of chuckles went around the room before dissolving into raucous laughter and wild cheering. Utterances of a man named 'Tombstone' popped up here and there as the drunken crowd hurled their bets at the nonplussed barkeeper who continued to clean his glassware.

"Are you sure about this? The biggest guy here is a chunin taijutsu specialist, and you can be damn sure that he's not gonna pull his punches for a little girl."

"You got that right." A man confirmed with a deep baritone drawl.

Naruko started bouncing on her heels as she found the owner of the voice. The man, Tombstone, was squat and dense just like his moniker would suggest. He stood at a little over six feet tall, but most likely weighed in at around 350 pounds. And even though his arms were thicker around than her entire torso but the girl didn't seem bothered in the slightest.

"You better not pull your punches! If you try that shit on me I'll put my fist so far up your ass that they'll change your name from Tombstone to Sock Puppet!"

The intoxicated mob roared with laughter and smattering of oooh's and cries of "kick her ass, Tombstone!" floated around the room.

The man in question just barked a laugh before plowing through the crowd of drunks to stand in front of his pintsized opponent. "Hey Bato?" he called to the barkeep; his gaze still firmly locked on the girl who barely came up to his waist.

"What?"

"Eight Gates are still out, right?"

"Not unless you want to pay to fix my bar and tell Kusa that you turned one of their kunoichi into jelly."

"Aww come on! Let 'em use it! I'll still kick his teeth so far down his throat that he'll be eating shit for a week!"

Again the crowd began hooting. Tombstone's grin grew wider as he tossed a roll of ryo notes to Bato. "5,000 on myself. Little missy, I hope for your sake that you like the taste of iron, 'cause Imma put you straight though that fence."

"Hey I think I just found out why they call you Tombstone. Every time you open your mouth it smells like someone died!"

The mismatched pair squared off in the ring. Tombstone clenched his fists and the air around him began to distort with chakra. Naruko continued bouncing like a loon with her tongue cocked off to one side of her mouth. This was gonna be so awesome~!

Time slowed to a crawl as Naruto's disguised Rinnegan began to pick out the subtle tension and flow patterns of the man's chakra. A plan began to form in his head. The man was unsure of what stance to take when fighting a smaller opponent; he could exploit that easily.

'_First point of attack; dodge his sweep and target the unguarded knee_.' Naruto could see his blow connect and the look of shock on the larger man's face. '_Retaliatory strikes_.' He brushed aside the blitz of punches and saw his opening. '_Obviously a heavy drinker; target liver with a palm strike_.' His hand connected with the man's exposed midsection causing him to double over in pain. '_Reopen window of attack_.' A vicious spear hand to the man's axillary nerve momentarily paralyzed his arm. Naruto batted it aside without resistance and struck again. '_Rupture liver_.' The boy drove his elbow hard into the man's torso and felt the resistance give way. '_Dodge instinctive uppercut_.' He bent backwards as the man's fist narrowly missed his head. '_Weaken ribs_.' Naruto slammed his foot into the man's midsection before twisting around the next set of attacks. '_Then break ribs entirely_.' A wet crunch met his ears as his spinning kick struck home. '_In shock and off balance; target injured knee and tear anterior cruciate ligament_.' Naruto's foot came down on the man's knee, casing it to bend at an awkward angle as the man fell to the ground. His opponent tried to get back up only for Naruto to appear in front of him. '_Dropkick to neck_.' His feet plowed into the man's throat causing his opponent's head to snap back in an unnatural manner. '_In summery; liver hemorrhaging, 3 cracked ribs, 2 ribs broken, leg unusable, windpipe crushed, hyoid broken, and severe trauma to the cervical spinal column. Recovery without aid; unlikely. Recovery with medical chakra; 3-4 weeks. Full psychological recovery; 3-4 months_.'

The fight began and the pair shot towards each other. Nobody could believe their eyes when the little blonde girl began to surgically dismantle the toughest ninja that the bar had to offer. She danced around his blows with practiced ease, almost as if she knew that they were coming. The next second, Tombstone was doubled over in agony as she planted an elbow to his gut. Her opponent was beginning to panic and get sloppy. His blows caught nothing but air and the girl took advantage of the situation to great effect. A pair of well placed kicks sent him reeling; the follow up axe kick to his leg put Tombstone on the floor. The medic was already in motion as the girl broke the man's neck with her dropkick, and was over the cage by the time his head hit the ground.

"Oh hell yeah!" Naruko screamed as she began to do a victory dance and hurl insults at the slack jawed patrons who had the misfortune of betting against her. "Your sorry Suna asses are buying me a brand new pair of shoes. Right on time too, since I just lost my previous pair in your ass!" She yelled at the thoroughly unconscious Tombstone.

Needless to say, all eyes in the bar were on Naruko. No one ever noticed the conversation that took place between her grandfather and a shadowy figure in the corner of the bar. They also failed to see the hooded figure slip her grandfather a plain brown envelope that quickly disappeared into the old man's robes.

The wheels in Sasori's plan had begun to turn. With that, their objective was as good as done.

* * *

**A little bit later than I would've liked, but an update none the less. Thanks for all the feedback on the last chapter (it seems like quite a few people like Tayuya as the love interest). Hopefully I don't come across as one of those authors who's trying to shoehorn in a pairing just for the hell of it. The plot is incredibly morphic at this point, and I'm really not sure which way the story is going to go. Reader input on character interaction opens up a lot of doors for me story-wise, so I encourage everyone to tell me what you think.  
**

**That being said; how does everyone feel about Risa? I haven't really given her much screen time partially due to the overall negative view that people seem to have towards OC's. Like her? Hate her? Nothing her? Too soon to tell?  
**

**Also this is entirely unrelated to the previous topic, but is Orochimaru really a pedophile or is that fan creation? I get that he's creepy (that's kind of the point) but I'm pretty sure a manga geared towards children would stay from issues like that. I'd like to get feel for his character now because I'm going to have to write for him pretty soon.**

**Life permitting, I'll try to update this next week. And yes, Naruko/Sasori's fighting style was inspired by Sherlock Holmes. Hopefully it's not too farfetched for them to fight this way.**


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